Fantasy Football 2017 - Fantasy Superpowers + NFC East Breakdown

work because the game scripts may flip that they have to rely on DAC a little bit more. Does that really help DAC though? Four interceptions last year, crazy low number. You increase those pass attempts. I mean, if you look at the wide receivers, they were only targeted 18 times a game last season, which was almost dead last in football. So does it help DAC to put them in a position where efficiency might not be as easy to come by?

I don't think it helps him, you know, in an NFL level. And when you talk fantasy, what you would see is you would probably end up seeing more of those, a little bit more volatility where he does get in the top five, you know. That's what I mean. Where he has the opportunity to have to throw three touchdowns in a game. But his interceptions will certainly go up if the game script is not as always being in a, you know, in a position of leading. People are so worried, though, if you look at his ADP, people don't buy that Dak Prescott is.

a great fantasy quarterback. And I just, you know, since 2000, the top 10 rookie quarterback years for fantasy, here's the names. There's only one bad name. You got Cam Newton, who's been a fantasy asset. Robert Griffin, he fell off after his next year, which he got injured that next year. Then Dak, Andrew Luck, James Winston, Russell Wilson, Andy Dalton, Marks Mariotom, Matt Ryan.

Those are all great NFL quarterbacks, all great fantasy quarterbacks. Dak Prescott will repeat as a good fantasy quarterback. And where he's being drafted right now, he is, to me, one of the better values in the draft. Last Dallas question before we talk Giants, some more. Any surprises, any fantasy offensive surprises that you expect in Dallas? I mean, you have wit and you have Terrence Williams. Those guys, you kind of have seen what they are. Is there anybody else that you think?

Fantasy owners should be aware of. I worry about Des. Oh, that's why I wanted to bring up about Des. And I know you're going to bring up the matchups. And it's hard to. It's a rough, rough year in terms of cornerback matchups. It's hard to argue against that. And Scott Barrett from Pro Football Focus did a tremendous study on how Des Bryant, if when he goes off in fantasy, he's playing a lower level.

competition of defensive back. And when he plays high-level guys like Josh Norman, who he plays twice, and there's also another, there's a laundry list. Here, I can read it to you. Mike Taglieri had this great find in his article on Des Bryant. He said it's a concern because Cowboys schedule, okay, he has shut down cornerbacks, Janores Jenkins twice, Josh Norman twice, Akeep Teab and Chris Harris with the Broncos, Patrick Peterson.

Marcus Peters, Desmond Truffant, Jason Verrett and Casey Hayward, and Richard Sherman. I mean, he has... That's a gauntlet. That is a gauntlet. And to start the year, I think his first three games are like Arizona, Denver, and... Giants in the first game. Yeah, and the Giants. That's just not looking good. And then you have what I said before, 18 targets to the wide receivers of the game, one of the lowest numbers in the league. But Des Bryant from week two on last year, now he missed a couple...

from injury. In 9 of 11 games, he either gave you 70 yards or a touchdown or both. So he was fine. He had eight touchdowns in 11 weeks. He is a good player, so I'm not over emphasizing. We always talk about strength of schedule. Don't freak out from strength of schedule. I'm not going to do that for Des Bryant, who is an elite wide receiver. Do you grimace at all dragging him into your wide receiver one spot?

Probably, but if he's my wide receiver one, the way that the draft looks this year, that means my RB1 is really good. Yeah. So, I mean, he's either your two or you have a stud running back. I just, I like Des, and I think that he's going to have a very solid year. All right. Let's talk about the Giants. We were talking about Sterling Shepard and the unfortunate news we saw this morning that he was carted off the practice field. We don't have any other information on Shepard. Now, the reality is, is the.

The New York Giants, according to all reports, one out on June 10th. They've just been in two tight-in sets a lot more often anyway. A lot of the opinion with Brandon Marshall coming in and the two tight-in sets was that Sirling Shepard was going to have a very hard time repeating his rookie year. I agreed with those reports. Now you have even more incentive for this team to run in two tight-in sets with Marshall and O'Dell Beckham Jr. on the outside. Evan Ingram, the first-round pick. A pass-catching weapon may...

this may be an opportunity for him to increase the target share. Let's talk about the Giants. What are the fantasy kind of headlines for the Giants this season? Because I think everybody sees the offense and wants to project big, big things for them, but we've been there before. We've been on that, you know, Philadelphia Eagles offense that everybody projected huge things for. Last year, the Titans stunk. This year, Evan Ingram's in there. What do you think, Mike? I think that's...

You've got to look at Eli Manning. And in 2000... Don't make me look. Don't make me look. The worst part of Eli Manning is when he actually looks back at you. That's far worse. But in 2016, he was a quarterback 1, 25% of the time, which is pretty stinky. I mean, that's not helping you. But 26 touchdowns. 2015, he was a quarterback 1.

50% of the time with 35 touchdowns, 2014, 43% of the time. I mean, it, so the question to me really is, is Eli Manning done? Because he looked pretty done a lot of the time last year, just playing extremely scared, inaccurate. So is it, is Eli done? Or was it just a bad year? I think that he's got enough left to have another solid.

year. Now, I'm not projecting him as a quarterback one, but it's just a reminder for people that it's not ancient history when Eli Manning was rounding into shape as a really good fantasy quarterback. The thing is, Matthew Stafford, Matthew Stafford is going just ahead of him in drafts right now. Tyrae Taylor and Andy Dalton, players are like more than Eli Manning, are both going behind him in drafts. He's an 11th round pick. I would love, you know,

to ask you the question of is he kind of a sleeper quarterback pickup, you know, maybe he is in a two-quarterback league, but I don't want to take him over any of those. No, no, not in the draft, but as the season goes on, if you see something very positive for Eli Manning, I'm not going to be quick to just throw a blanket over that, say, oh, it's just a couple weeks. Eli was solid for fantasy just two years ago. Yeah, and while their defense has definitely. And they have Marshall now, too.

Touchdown weapons. That's a great upgrade to their offense. And their defense has gotten better, which slows the game down. And that's part of why the Giants didn't score as much. But they can't run. But exactly. They can't run the ball as far as, you know, grinding the clock out. And that means there's more opportunity. Two years ago, the Giants scored 380 points last year. I'm sorry, three seasons ago, two seasons ago, they scored 420. So they're averaging 400. And then in 2016,

They come out and only score 310 points as a team. They were near the bottom of the league. This is not an offense and not a team that anyone would say this is near the bottom of the league in offense. So that says that there should be a regression to the mean where even if they're not scoring 420 points, I think they'll be back in that 380 range, which is a lot of extra production going somewhere. I think Brandon Marshall.

if Sterling Shepard is out, I came here prepared to talk about, as I've spoken before this offseason, Brandon Marshall is really capped because of total targets in that offense. But that cap, that governor on his miles per hour is about to come off for me if the injury is long term. I really do see a major change there. Let me put you on the spot with that then, since we're just hearing this news about Shepard and what you're saying there about Marshall's upside.

Right now in drafts, he's kind of tossed in with the world of wide receiver twos and slot receivers. He's right next to Landry and Julian Edelman, Michael Crabtree. Would you elevate Marshall, be willing to elevate Marshall ahead of guys like Edelman and Landry based on this news? No, I wouldn't go that far. So he's sitting kind of where he should. Maybe you would have said he's overdrafted before. That's exactly right. And the problem is he will probably move up in ADP.

beyond where he should now. I feel like where he was going is where he should. Martavis, quick aside, Martavis Bryant is at 4-10. Yeah. 10th pick of the fourth round. Martavis Bryant is being drafted ahead of all those guys that just said. Wow. And right behind Devante Adams and Tyreek Hill. Also not currently an NFL player. Yeah. There was a news report this morning about Martavis and frustration from the Pittsburgh side that the league has dragged their feet. Would they have?

Yeah, they seem to do that. It's a consistent theme. Yeah. So I just want to throw out. I mean, Evan Engram is a possible boost if something is, if Shepard is going to miss time. And Dwayne Harris would likely be the next man up in my assumption as the three. Yeah. Yeah. Or is it possible the guy to run out of the slot. I mean, I'm just saying if there's another pass catcher who's going to benefit from playing time.

They need Victor Cruz back. No, no. Once Cruz gets dropped by Chicago here, no. All right, let's move on. Let's talk about, I think. Well, you got to talk about Smash Jackson, at least a little bit. Yeah, let's talk about the running backs in New York because Jackson to me, Smash Jackson, that is. Paul Perkins. Paul Perkins, it's a volume. Oh, yes. It's a volume play for me. We've seen him on the field and he can be very explosive.

but he's not a between-the-tackles type of runner, in my opinion. He's also not one that can sustain 270 carries. He needs to get some fantasy value out of the passing game and from just being on the field. I'm not expecting much to change with this offense in terms of the running game this year. I just expect Perkins to have enough carries to be running back too relevant. I mean, that's fair. Last year, the Giants running backs.

We're fifth worst in the league, 3.7 yards per carry. However, they were 11th in the league in running back targets. But as we talked to, we mentioned, I think yesterday that Shane Vereen is still there. Shane Verne is still an excellent pass-catching running back with or without his bicep, which seems to keep removing itself from his body. So will Parkins get enough play in the passing game? Well, we debated Perkins and snack Jackson.

Eddie Lacey. Smash and snack. On Twitter, Lacey won the vote on Jason's Twitter. Yeah. Because we rebranded him. On Sleeperbot in our Sleeperbot channel, which you can check out in the Sleeperbot app, Paul Perkins won. Well, yeah, because she was Eddie Lacey. He wasn't snack. It wasn't snack checks. So it's all about the nickname. It's all about. It's not great. All right. I will say this. The last four games that Perkins played in.

where, you know, only one of those was he's a starter. Right. You know, he was pacing over 1,000 yards. But he has, he's not a touchdown guy. And that's my big worry. I mean, he had no touchdowns last season. And when I watched. Neither did Melvin Gordon's rookie year. Fair enough. But when I watch Perkins, that is my biggest worry. I wonder, he doesn't strike me as a goal line type of back. And Orleans Darkwa is there, gets forgotten. And Shane Vareen.

Look, we talk a lot about, okay, Duke Johnson's a good pick late in a draft if you're in a PPR. Theo Riddick is always a value if you're in a PPR. But Schaembrane is forgotten and he should not be. If those other guys are gone and you're at the back of your draft and your running back court is weak and you're in a PPR. So, you know, several qualifiers. But he will be a guy you can throw in your lineup as a flex play who can get six, seven catches a game. Yeah, I mean.

I just remember seeing Shane Vereen on the waiver wire. He was just a streamable waiver wire running back. I just don't know coming off of injury why that would change. Like I wouldn't really invest the pick in him, I guess. So I disagree with you on that. Yeah, I mean, obviously last year, like you said, coming off of injury, he was injured. But the year before, he had 59 receptions. And he is a capable receiving back. Yeah, only PPR.

Let's talk about the Washington Redskins. I think this is one of the more interesting teams to discuss because you have kind of this, at least myself and Mike, I think Jason's on board there too, where I think we understand that this offense is going to be pretty good. I mean, there was second in passing yards per game last season, and yet we lose Pierre Garsohn. We had Rob Kelly. Now we bring in Somaget P. Ryan. Rob Kelly's still there? Yeah. Well, I just meant in addition to.

You have Jordan Reed banged up. And so I think fantasy production will abound from this offense. And yet, you know, figuring out exactly which players that is is the challenge for fantasy owner. So I want to help them with that right now. Let's start at the running back position and talk about Robert Kelly, a player who was impressive, very impressive at times last year.