Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Le'Veon Bell News, Zeke, Fantasy Answers

I don't know what it is, but we had the Patreon Mailbag show, the Join the Foot.com show yesterday, and we had a little, you know, we had a little TJ yelled in Amir Abdullah face off. Now we're sitting here. We kind of get, the season's on its way. Oh, nice. We're getting into it about Ryan Matthews and Matt Jones. Oh, these are, I mean, these are big decisions. And, um.

You know, when you're dead wrong, I pointed out to the listeners. That's the important thing. That's very fair, but I'll point out that Matt Jones' 19 receptions that Ryan Matthews has never had less than that. Unless the game he played six. Was Ryan Matthews the third down back last year? Because that's why I remember him being the third down back last year. Yeah, it kind of was. All right. Wait, I thought he can't be a third down back, Andy. Who said that? You were implying he wouldn't be. Oh, I was implying he wouldn't be?

That's a big difference between saying he can't be. No, I'm just saying. I like it. You guys win all the arguments when you take different words and put them in my mouth. Yeah, it's easy. Yeah. So if you played as a third down back last year, sometimes, and Sproles was in there. I think he's the one and two this year. All right. Keeper League question from Vincent and Dallas. By the way, if you have a question, go to the website. The Fantasy Footballers.com, click the submit a question button. Very easy. Or you can call us 302-464. TFFB. We like to play the voicemail questions as well.

Vincent in Dallas Keeper League question. He has Rob Grunkowski and David Johnson on his team. Which one should he keep? David Johnson. Oh. I want to hear the rest of the question. And if DeAndre Hopkins is still available at the fourth pick, should I take him over which one he doesn't keep? So if you drop one back into the pool, which one's most likely to be there at four? And would you take Hopkins over that player? Okay. So it's a...

smaller keeper league it's just the one i personally would keep david johnson and then i would draft hopkins over grunk that's exactly how i would uh order it myself i am with you guys completely draft considerations david in temecula california says hey guys big fan of the show thank you for all your great information when drafting a team how much do you take into consideration a player's strength of schedule and do you draft a player higher because they are in a contract year

I feel like those two things can be very important factors when looking to draft all positional players. I can take these things into account as kind of certain tiebreakers, but I don't allow myself to be overwhelmed by, you know, oh, well, the strength of schedule. Funny enough, we were just talking about this on the Patreon show, and correct me if I'm wrong, it was Tampa Bay who...

on our strength of schedule. They have the best schedule for a running back. I'd say the most conducive to a running back scoring fantasy points based on last year's defenses for the year. Yes, and for the years a whole. And then you look at Doug Martin, which these guys love him. However, I know that even if you love Doc Martin, you cannot love that opening schedule. It is rough. But that's not going to stop you from drafting Doug Martin.

Well, I'll be honest with you. I didn't know that Tampa had the best running defense. I mean, the best situation schedule-wise against teams defending the running back. I didn't know that. I like Doug Martin outside of that. It's a tiebreaker maybe. The contract year thing is interesting. Yeah. We saw it with Mark Ingram. We've got Eddie Lacey this year. We got Alshan Jeffrey, Doug Martin. It doesn't always come to fruition. Sure. But you know what?

I will buy into that more than I will buy into the strength of schedule. And the reason for that is not that all the sudden an NFL player is they turn into a monster or a superhero when they're in a contract year. However, that athlete will take extra steps to make, oh, maybe I'm going to keep my diet extra clean this year. Maybe I'm going to play through this injury that I would think about sitting out for. I'm going to rehab even more. They just...

There's a thing about a multi-million dollar contract that can incentivize you to push yourself just a little bit harder than you normally would. Okay, so not to open up too big of a can of worms here, but if there are certain players that have performed in that situation, does it stand a reason that those players, because there are certain types of players that will play good all the time. Their standard of success isn't just driven by the dollar.

Because you're kind of saying that, you know, some guys, it's an extra motivating factor. If that extra motivating factor exists on a guy like Doug Martin, does it stand a reason that now that he's been paid, the motivation disappears? Yes. If you can't have it. Same with Ingram. Same with Ingram. Yes. You can't have it both ways. You can't say that I believe he's going to play through injuries more now. And then he got paid and doesn't need to. Did Ingram get paid this off season? Yes. Okay. Was it this year or was it last year? I'm trying to recall that. I'll look it up. Sorry to interrupt you there.

believe it was no i think it might have been the year before so he still had a very good year um so it was just something that came to my mind thinking if a player is affected by that one direction it probably happens the other direction it's not impossible for a player to you know have a great contractor to continue to play great i'm just saying we're all human and when you see a contract of that size staring you in the face to be better that that can

that can do some magical things. Yeah, and with the strength of schedule, there are teams that you know are going to be good. I mean, you look at Seattle. They've been, you know, one of the best defenses since 2012. You know they're going to be good. That's something you can easily predict. But other teams that stepped up, you know, you've had Cincinnati that have been up and down as a defense a little bit over the last five years. They had a good year last year. They're probably be good. But there's so much turnover. So you just don't know. Take the Jaguars, right? If you're looking at the Jaguars, you've got a team that when you look at...

putting together strength of schedule for this year. If they're playing against the Jags, oh man, that's a great matchup. Except the problem is their defense is way improved on paper this year, and they shouldn't be anything the same as they were last year. So now you're literally telling people, hey, this team has a good schedule because they've got two games against the Jags. Same with the Giants defense. It should be improved. Same with the fact Houston's going to show up as a great defense on the strength of schedule. J.J. Watt might miss a few games to start the year.

You can't predict injuries if the Cardinals lost Tyrone Matthew, or they have them. That's two different defenses you're playing. And speaking of Cardinals, if I recall correct, they were considered to be up against one of the worst passing and schedules for quarterbacks and receivers. Yep, last year. And they were second in the league in yards. So, I mean, don't overvalue strength of schedule. All right, let's go to a voicemail question here, assuming I can pull it up. No, it's not. Hey, guys, just kidding. Name's Phil calling from Wednesday, Canada.

My questions are twofold. First, does it make sense to draft bench players prior to actual starting roster spots? I find sometimes in my drafts the way the draft unfold, I end up drafting the best available player, and that guy is sometimes on my bench. So I'm curious if you think that's a mistake, that I should fill my starting rosters first, or if it's drafting the best available player, if it happens unfold that way, it is what it is. Second question, what's the best draft day food?

pizza, barbecue, or just all of the Oreo cookies. Thanks for help. I have all of them. I like the... Would you actually get all of them? Just the double stuff? Let's answer the food question first. Double stuff. I would get the white chocolate covered double stuff. I would make white chocolate covered double stuff, which has been done in my household before. I'll go with the... I like pizza. Yeah, I'm a pizza wing. I'm a classic. I go with the pizza wings. Or, actually, you know what? We need to look into.

getting that Oreo pizza? No, getting that Raisin' Cain's. That's true. That Raisin Cain's Tailgator. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that sounds pretty darn good. And a bathtub of the sauce. And a bathtub of the, a kiddie pool full of the sauce. Best draft ever. Best draft. All right. To the real part of the question, yeah, it's okay to fill your bench first. Because we always say the opposite advice of this, which is.

Well, not the opposite advice. The same advice said a different way, which is don't just draft to fill your roster. In other words, you know, don't take your two running backs, you three wide receivers and a, you know, a tight end. And then you're tied in. Yeah. So it's okay. There is a point, a tipping point where, you know, your fourth running back is, and you don't got any starting wide receivers. Right. That it's a problem. Yeah, the general.

way that I approach a draft is going to be looking at running backs and wide receivers first. And depending on how many start in each position, I'm going to pretty much fill those starters in my flex position first, unless there's incredible value that I can't pass up at a quarterback or tied in. And then after that, once my running backs and wide receivers are filled up, I'm usually drafting nothing but bench for a couple more rounds until I'm just drafting the best wide receiver and running back until the value.

dictates or the tier dictates. I need to move. Usually it's more the tier than the value, but I need to move on a quarterback. I need to move on a tight end. Unless I need to move on those guys, I'm taking the best running back and wide receiver, which fills my plan. Look, it's okay to fill the bench first, and it's okay to fill your bathtub with raisin cane sauce. There you go. ADP rankings, Dill in New York City. New York City.

Hey guys, I had a question about Kelvin Benjamin. I was pretty high on him coming out of college because of his size, and he did impress during his rookie year with over 1,000 yards. The Panthers' offense has gotten even better since then, so why do you have him ranked below players like Jordan Matthews when he's the clear number one on a high-scoring offense? If I were to get Zeke as my first pick and Alshan as my second, would it be smart to take Kelvin as my third, or do you go with a guy like John Brown, T. Y. Hilton, Jordan Matthews.

By the way, great work, and congrats on all those awards. Thank you, Dill. Thank you. I really want to answer this one. Go for it. Jump in. I could be wrong about Kelvin Benjamin. That's the beginning of my answer. Good answer. But I'm willing to be. Calvin Benjamin had the benefit of a very fortunate first season in the NFL. It doesn't mean he's not talented. It does take something to get over 1,000 yards. But that was a team that was very bad.

They were down a lot in the end of games. Calvin Benjamin was the only target in town, and he had so many, he was the garbage man of two years ago. If Jordan Matthews, who, as ironically mentioned here, was the garbage man of last year? Won the footy. Yeah, Kelvin would have won the footy had we given one out the year before. And so for me, it's just a matter of a lot of targets, Olson, Funchis, a running game that's very efficient, a team that tends to be up. And it doesn't mean Kelvin can't play up to this, like, wide receiver one type of level. I just, I don't buy it.

That's just me personally. And this is what I'll add into there, too, just real quick, a couple points. We talk often about when you're in the draft and you have these guys, you make a decision. You say, I am willing to be right and I'm willing to be wrong on this guy. You mean you have to either reach to get them or you just completely bypass that player. I'm with Andy. Kelvin Benjamin is one of those guys for me that.

It should be there, but I'm willing to be wrong because I don't see it in Kelvin Benjamin. And then I have to bring up the regression that I feel is coming for Cam Newton. He had 35 passing touchdowns last year in his magic season. His best career total passing before that was 24. I mean, I feel like I would like to do a study. So I'll put this on my list of a quarterback who has jumped up, you know, 10.

10 plus touchdowns, look at their following year. See, were they closer to that breakout, or did they kind of return to what they normally throw? On top of, so I just, let me ask you a question. To think that the Panthers will repeat as the highest scoring offense in the league, I don't buy into that. Okay, let's pretend they do. Okay. Do you believe this? Do you believe that Calvin Benjamin will have more than 146 targets? No.

I don't think he would have more than that. Is that what he had? That's what he had in his rookie year. He was on 90% of snaps. Maybe, maybe negligibly. Okay. Maybe. You mean, like, pretty close? Yeah, I mean, like maybe he goes to 155 or something like that. Well, I mean, when he came out of the gate. I feel like he had as many targets as he's going to get. Okay. And he had a high, you know, a lot of touchdowns. He was targeted on 30% of red zone. That's probably right, the right number for him.

Yeah, when he came out of the gate, remember, he started as a rookie averaging almost 10 targets per game, was scoring half a touchdown per game. And I want to remind us that all of that production came at the hands of Derek Anderson, not Cam Newton. Do you want me to bring that stat out again?

I'm just saying. Pull out my research, my Derek Anderson research. In 2014, Derek Anderson started that, played the first four weeks, game seven, and games 14 and 15 for Cam Newton. And he was a big, he really targeted Kelvin Benjamin a lot. Do some math here. How many targets did I just say? 145. 146. Cut that in half. That's how many balls he caught. He was a 50% catch rate. He had 73 receptions despite 146 targets. So it wasn't impressive to me.