Top 10 Countdown + Stash the Smash

we as fantasy owners don't recognize him. I kind of wanted to basically start everything over, said Ross. It's a good plan. Is it a good plan when the only thing you had was speed? Are you reinventing yourself as not just a fast player? No, I mean, I think he's trying to reinvent himself as a person. Like try to, you know, get over whatever hiccups have been there. I mean, obviously he's not saying I want to be a 50-50 ball, a slow methodical.

This player. New approach, new head coach. Yeah, he's got the opportunity. Nice right. And he's going to need to. So, you know, when he said, I kind of want to basically start everything over, the reporter, responder with, duh. Yeah, yeah, it's not been good for John Ross. I think the ship has probably sailed mostly because the opportunity is just not really there. I mean, Joe Mixen, Tyler Boyd, AJ Green, they'll all catch more passes than John Ross will. Tyler Eifford might.

You know, Geo Bernard might. I mean, statistically speaking, when it's been this long for guys like Ross, Josh Doxon, it's. Rashad Perryman. It's just not going to happen. All right. With fantasy football gearing up, now is the time to ask your commission if you were using the right platform. You should use sleeper. Very nice, Mike. Thank you. All right. You guys want to get into our top 10, or did you have anything I wanted to bring to the table before we?

Well, before we jump into a top ten, I wouldn't, wouldn't, uh, I would like to. I couldn't find the right word to fix with my tense problem. I would just keep trying to talk, though. Man, did you guys ever have the, the writing in tense problem? Writing in tense? Like as in, as in using past tense. Nice. Like past tense, present tense and just, and you couldn't handle it. No, there was, there was a time my life where I just, I kept.

using the wrong ones. And it would be jumping back and forth. Was that a tough time for you? Oh, the English teacher was not having that. But you know what they would be having? Fantasy gear from fantasy champs.com. Your fantasy paraphernalia. If you're a winner, unlike. Paraphernalia. What else would you call it? No, I did. Sure. T trophies? Now I'm really self-conscious. Rings. Rings? Look.

If you win, you got to go to Fantasychamps.com. If you're doing a live draft and you want to have that board, Fantasy Champs has you covered there as well. All kinds of cool stuff, hardware, gear. And yes, paraphernalia. You're right. Use the code ballers. You can save some money. Not just if you win, but if you won, I'm helping you out there, Mike, with the tents. I really appreciate my English teacher appreciates that. Oh, man. If you didn't notice, it's Saturday, and there's a new ballers episode.

We are three times a week now in July. We're up to five episodes a week starting in August. And really that's six, if you're a member of the Foot Clan and join the Foot.com, which I do encourage you to check out. But, man, it's go time. We're ready to rumble. Let's get into it. Number 10. All right. Number 10 on the list, running back Todd Gurley from the Los Angeles Rams. We never would have imagined. Number one.

Overall fantasy player last year, besides Patrick Mahomes, but number one running back. Yes, and if you go back again to 2017, he was the number one running back. He's obviously been a complete monster for fantasy owners. In 2018, 10th, most PPR points per game for running backs in NFL history. His average draft position right now is the middle of the second round out of fear. His UDK risk rating in our ultimate draft kit.

at Ultimate DraftKit.com is a six out of ten. That's very high. Which is high for a guy you would draft in the first or second round or feel confident. But yet 17 touchdowns on the ground in 14 games. Another four through the air on 81 targets. At what point will the pendulum swing too far on Gurley? Or is this completely wait and see in your mind? Because I'm wondering, I start getting to the point where I'm going, man, a highly efficient

less volume tied Gurley might be more valuable than the 205. Yeah, I mean, that is 100% true. When I, when I made my rankings, I, he doesn't have the volume that he's had in the past. He just, you know.

He's not going to get that. You can see with what the transactions that the team has made that they plan to lighten his workload and not just the transactions they made, but you've got a little bit of evidence from when he came back from injury and how he was used alongside C.J. Anderson, so there's plenty of reasons to be scared. But even still, even still, when I've got Gurley just barely over 200 rushing carries, he's still my running back eight.

Russian carries. Is that what you were laughing? I don't think I've heard that before. Yeah. Well, no, no. They were like, they're not Australian carries. Yeah, no, I was going to make that joke too. Yeah, they're in the very European. Thank you. But he doesn't need the volume to be great. That being said, I do think that in the middle of the second where you're drafting him in a lot of these drafts, I feel like that. And this will sound a little weird because he was the number one last year and the number one before.

I feel like you're basically drafting him at his ceiling. And that's not to say that he can't hit that. But that's kind of what I think with this level of volume that I expect. I think I would probably not take it that far. Now, I wanted to ask the question, what's the earliest you individually would take early? For me, it's the back of the first round. I would be willing in the right circumstance to do that. I look at players like Alvin Camara, and I say, without massive workload.

They're top five back. So to me, the ceiling for Gurley has to be the top five. Yeah, I think that he can still hit that. The downside for Gurley is... Yeah, how does it go wrong? Week two, in between week one and week two, his knee swells up again, and he's just sitting on the sideline for indefinite amount of time. It's arthritis. You have no idea when he needs a break. When he needs a break, when it's going to calm down, this isn't a...

A broken clavicle. Okay, four to six weeks. Todd Gurley's back and he's full strength. It's your knee. Tony Romo just shuddered somewhere. He's got a few extra. Who said what? Bring him another one. But like you don't know when or if the problem's actually going to strike again. I mean, I.

Look, I'm posing this question to you guys. You're old. You're geriatric. Right. You both have to know a thing or two about arthritis. Yes. When's it going to happen? All I know is... I'd be out right now. All I know is I'm not playing quality football with my arthritis or with my neck. And while maybe Gurley's upside is in the top five still not at that, you know, eighth running back spot. But my point is I think that the days of his dominant number one...

that's just done. That's gone. And because he carries so much weight to answer your question, Andy, where would I draft him? He's one of those guys that I feel like he's pretty much off my board. Because I would consider it in the 301. In the third round, I would consider him there, but the reality is he probably won't make it to that spot. But when I go down through the average draft list and I think, you know, okay, right now guys that are going even behind him, you know, Dalvin Cook.

I'll take Dalvin Cook over Todd Gurley. That's that's kind of... Nick Chubb, I would go Gurley because I think Chubb has his own problems to do with. Gurley. Gurley. Come on. Leonard Fournett. Okay. So that's about where Gurley is. I think you would take Gurley where his ADP is. If you have Gurley, that's so you get him at 205. You just draft him there. Do you spend 705 on Darrell Henderson? Do you spend 701 on Darry Henderson? I do. Because you want to ensure that...

You don't have catastrophic loss of your second round page. Exactly. I don't normally like to go after the handcuff. I'm not drafting Paul Perkins anywhere because you don't. It's hard to be 100% certain who the handcuff actually is and will that handcuff get the type of work you're expecting. Things are very fluid over the season. But you know, actually, you know what? We can't even say with 100% that is Darrell Henderson.

No. But you can say you can follow what the coaches did or the management team of spending a very high draft capital moving up to get him. It would seem that he would come in and be the heavy side. Watch him closely in camp in preseason. Henderson flashing in camp or preseason. Getting the praise of coaches means a lot towards ensuring your handcuff situation because if he's the guy, he's not a handcuff.

He's a hand. I don't think he will. I went both sides there. I saw both sides. Stereo. Stereo. I don't think he would come in and get Gurley's workload. What I'm still expecting him to get. It would be him and Malcolm Brown, but Daryl Henderson would be on the side that you want. All right. Number, oh, I got a button for that. Number nine. David Johnson. I was really hoping you went. All right. Number nine. That's right. Redundant.

uh david johnson does he deserve yes to be praised yes it it was tough sledding if you had david johnson last year because you took him at

Number two. His ADP is at 105 right now. He is not being drafted as a cheap pick after last year's disappointment when he finished as a running back 10. So he's being drafted assuming the Cardinals are going to score more than just the least in the league. The offense is going to play at a quicker pace of pay. And David Johnson has been good. I think that fantasy players are smart. They're just right. 2015, he was number 8, 2016, number one. Missed the season in 2017 with the injury. Last season.

Number 10 overall, he's the workhorse. 258 carries last year, 50 receptions on the worst possible offense. You saw his numbers go up everywhere across the board. Once Mike McCoy was fired, he went from 8.3 yards of reception to 9.3. His yards per carry went from 3.16 up to almost 4. His attempts per game went up from 15 to 17. So you saw a marked improvement once Mike McCoy in his,

horrifically bad 1952 offense was sent packing. The big problem for David Johnson last year in 2018, 15 attempts in the 10 zone. You need a running back to get carries there, make their money. In his huge year in 2016, that number was 33. More than double the attempts inside the 10 than he had last year. He's the past catching back if...

And honestly, to me, he was PFF's number one pass catcher in football in 2016. If you are fading David Johnson this year, you better be fading Sequin Barclay. I'm not saying he's better. Barkley is the better raw athlete and running back at this point. But it's nearly identical situations. Lead dog pass catching running back for what could be a pretty bad offense. How does it go?

wrong for David Johnson this year. There's a lot of hype around Cliff Kingsbury. It almost feels like the longer we sit with the information about Kyler running the offense and total plays. And the longer we sit with it, all the ADPs are just trickling up for David Johnson and Christian Kirk and Larry Fitzgerald and Kyler. So it's almost like you need to see, you need to let the bull out of the pin to see what the heck happens.

How does it go wrong? What is the narrative for another disappointing year for David Johnson if he's being drafted at 105? That's pretty easy. How it goes wrong is the air raid system and the excitement over Cliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray coming to the NFL just flat fails. It doesn't translate with these hash marks. The offense sputters, they're not that good. The offense of line is bad. So, I mean, if the whole offense collapsed and the experiment going on in the desert right now,

is a failure, then David Johnson will not return on the 105 pick overall. He will still be, barring injury, you know, a top 15 back. He was a top 10 back last year, but you're not going to feel good spending the fifth pick because there's going to be guys who went six or seven or eight who were, you know, top players. But I just, you know, look, we're here. We get to see a lot. Right. And let me be clear, just to follow up my point, I am not fading, Sequin, and I'm not fading.

DJ. You're just saying if you fade one, you need to fade the other because it's very similar circumstances. Do you put David Johnson? Now, we have him at nine in our top 10. Do you put him in the category of players that are capable of finishing one overall this season? Yes. Jason says yes. I mean, yeah. I would say he's in the category. It doesn't mean, obviously not. If we were projecting that, he'd be number one on the list. He's in that category. Yes.