Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - The TRUTH About Fantasy WR's in 2015, Part 2

Not a monstrous difference. And he had seven times where he was in the top 25, three times where he was not a wide receiver four. Kind of had, in my view, an up and down season that didn't allow you to bank on playing him. So coming down the stretch, John Brown, after his... He got hurt and then...

He had the game with the zero, right? But then after that, he was great down the stretch. And he was actually very, very, very good for the majority of the year. He just has those couple years, a couple games of the zero with the injury problem. And there was also a shift in the offense once Michael Floyd got his hand put back together. But.

As far as moving forward to next year, I think John Brown is a, he might become a value. John Brown's an interesting guy. That's what I'm saying. He might be, he's too early to call, but he. Thousand yards. It depends on what will happen with the Michael Floyd hype over the off season. There's a lot of Deshawn Jackson similarities in these stat lines. Not necessarily in the up and down. He's a little more consistent, but I mean, a thousand yards on only 65 receptions.

Yeah, he's a big play guy. And seven touchdowns. What I liked about John Brown, though, is two less targets, but 17 more receptions and two more touchdowns. So it just... Then who? Than himself. Oh, okay. Sorry. Context. Yeah. I apologize. So from last year, from his rookie year. Sure. So it just wasn't an inflation of...

where you have to pump the brakes completely and say, well, this is going to regress massively next year. It just showed a nice, steady improvement in the receiver. I agree. So let's talk about T.Y. Hilton, somebody who still managed to finish in the top 24 despite the Andrew Luck situation. So projecting him forward, what I want to know is, is he going to be a draft value because of the numbers put up, or is he going to be overhyped because of luck turning? Where does Hilton belong?

in the discussion because obviously not the normal Hilton type of year. He got paid. He's great, in my opinion. Like, I think the talent-wise and who he is is great, but will luck and him put it back together for a top-12 finish next year? Yeah, I think they will. The question is going to be whether or not... For top 12? I think he's going to be right around that 12. Whether he finishes as the best wide receiver 2 or, you know, the worst wide receiver 1, that's where I expect him to...

finish around. And I actually do think he has the talent and opportunity to be able to get up near that top five, you know, should the chips fall right next year with the Colts. He's just never been a touchdown guy. That's been the problem. He's had these seasons, you know, last year seven touchdowns. I think he had one game with three. So he puts up big yardage numbers over 1,300 yards. You didn't see a regression in yards per catch this year. You just kind of saw...

a regression in total receptions, despite the fact targets were up. So that says quarterback play. Yeah. And the truth is right now, this is absurdly early to look at average draft positions. But right now it's not. That's what we should title all February, March, and April shows. The absurdly early season. No. But right now, he is going.

as the 23rd wide receiver. And so if that stays, if he stays around that range and he goes to the 18th, 19th, 20th. I'll be all over that. I'm going, yeah, I will, I will jump on that and love that. You know who's going ahead of him right now? Josh Gordon. I would drop Josh Gordon ahead of him. Would you? Yeah. Yeah, I would.

Josh Gordon is going to be a fun one. Do you remember Josh Gordon? Well, I was going to have him be my breakout, but then he's already clearly broken out. He was the number one receiver. That's a pretty good breakout. But as far as like coming... You know, he didn't do anything this year. Well, yeah, he didn't do anything. Comeback player of the year. So, well, I didn't use him. He's not even reinstated yet, though. He has submitted a petition yet. They had 60 days of response. I think he'll be back. I am in the Josh Gordon camp.

Well, you've always loved Josh Gordon. Well, there are certain players. Look, we all get reads on people. Johnny Mansell, you have trouble. You get a read on it. The guy doesn't get it. I mean, that's the truth. He doesn't get it. Josh Gordon seems to get it to me. That's my perception. I'm one human being. Which part of his multiple suspensions tells you he gets it? None of that.

It's not in the amount of his suspensions. It's in the player when you see him on an interview. You hear him talk about it. He wrote on, you know, he wrote an article afterwards himself about the suspension and about the situation. And it came across like somebody who gave a crap. Yeah. You know, and he was so young. And I could be proven wrong very easily with another suspension. But I'm going to just, I'm going to say I'm on his side. I'm on his side. I take him over Sammy Lockins. Oh. Wow.

Yeah, so there you go. All right. All right. So let's talk about the last two. Everybody knows their names. They're the most obvious fantasy-wide receivers that we all predicted going into the season. And that's James Jones and Tavon Austin. Tavon Austin is that name that we spoke about in the beginning of the show that is mind-blowing to me that he is. Look, step one is to play 16 games for these lists. It really is. He did it. Running back lists looked the same.

But James Jones, let's talk about him first because he had 100 targets in a season where his career we thought was done. Yeah, it was a nutty and great time for James Jones. A nutty and great time for James Jones. Bad time for the Packers comes in. You know, here's the truth. Going forward, I think we can't project James Jones to be much of anything, even if he's back with the Packers. He's probably not even a Packer. No, I know. No, he's probably not a Packer. They like him in the locker room, though.

Yeah. He could be back as a three. Like he's, let's all be honest. He can be the event coordinator. He throws a great party. Yeah. Locker room, slip and slides. He is the example of the guy. I won't drown. Name a better receiver from Green Bay this year. You can't. A more productive. There was nobody more productive than James Jones. That was the, that's the true. He was the go-to guy. I mean, it's not like Devante Adams did it. Richard Rogers didn't do it. Randall Cobb didn't do it.

Randall Cobb is where? Where did he finish? 28? Here's the issue with James Jones. Because he's going, how did Randall Cobb call this far? No, you know, the truth is that really upset me what you just said, because I thought about it and I really wanted to argue, but there's no argument. He was the best wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers, for sure. And that is disgusting. He was cut from two other teams. It's, what was going on, wide receivers? Come on.

Come on, Jordy. The first seven games, James Jones was scoring about 14 and a half a game. The last nine, under seven. But here's the weird thing. He had these numbers, finished where he did, five games, zero or one reception. Five. I mean, this was somebody who surprised everybody to start the year, but then he had a negative...

point game. He had a zero. He had another gooser. He had another one catch game in the second half. But, yeah, he's done. He's probably done. He's irrelevant for next year. I believe that, you know, if Jordy's back and Randall Cobb is there, even if James Jones comes back and he's that third guy on, you know, we saw him do well years before, but I'm...

I wouldn't draft him with the last pick in my draft. All right, so Tavon Austin, another guy who had multiple one reception games, but got the ball in the running game consistently. Look, he had six rushing attempts, I believe, in week... Oh, man, Tavon. Six rushing attempts in week 17. The weeks before, three, four, four, two, four, one, three, eight, three.

He gets the ball in the, you know, in the Percy Harvin-esque into rounds. Yeah, I've never seen something with it. I've never seen a wide receiver two, right? He's a wide receiver two. He's the 24th. So in a 12-team league, he is a wide receiver two that finished the year with 473 receiving yards. This is what I want people to do because I'm taking a look at our league of record. Of the top, we can go all the way to 28. The top 28 wide receivers.

We finished the year. There was one receiver who was not owned on a five bench splot team. And it was Tavon Austin. Tavon Austin. 52 attempts. Go look at your league and see if somebody owns Tavon. But when you put all the numbers together, he was a weapon. He had nine touchdowns, total touchdowns, I believe. Yeah, five through the air. Four on the ground. Ridiculous. So is he just annoying to own?

Or is he somebody that we really just missed, missed projecting him higher? Look, he was a, he's a very talented athlete. He is so fast. I believe that, you know, is he still catching punt returns? Oh, he's a returner? Yeah, I think he is. If that's the case and you're in one of those leagues, that clearly gives a bump up.

24 years old. Going forward, you know, if they're figuring out how to use him and get him involved, he's a guy that should be owned, should be drafted, and has potential to do this because it's not just he got lucky. It was they worked him into the game and he used his skill set to do well. The hard part with him is it's just so...

difficult to rely on starting him. I'd love him as that. He's the guy this year that you could flex if you needed to. Yeah. By week flex. I didn't want him as a two. Right. No way would I have played him as a two. He had too many games. He had six games this year where he wasn't even a wide receiver four. So you just couldn't rely on him and putting him clicking that save button, right? I got my lineup and I think I'm going Tavon Austin. He's in there, my flex.

Clicking that save button is going to be very hard to do. But because of that, is he going to be available very late in draft? Sure. Am I drafting him? No. You know, the truth is I don't think he's going to be available as late as he should because people are going to look back and see he was the, you know, a wider receiver two. Yeah, good luck. Yeah, I'm, I probably won't be. Good luck. All right, so 25 was Amari Cooper.

26 with Ted Ginn, 27 was Mike Evans. Obviously, we like Mike Evans higher than 27 next year. Randall Cobb, Ruben Randall, Travis Benjamin, Kamar Aiken, and the list goes on from there. But is there somebody that you want to talk about before we close out? The one guy I want to talk about, good friend of the show, Marty McBride, Martavis Bryant. His rookie year, he was a fantasy sensation. It was what he's doing. Oh, it is not sustainable.

He cannot continue to do this. He played one more game this year because of the suspension. He had 43 targets, 43 more targets in one game and 216 yards more than the last season. This speaks to me that Martavis Bryant is a huge part of their offense. He is a freak. I'm choosing to overlook the down games that he had.

And I think that he is a guy that I want for sure on my team next year. With Martavis Bryant, it comes down to maturity. You saw whether it was the suspension that started the year or the kind of inconsistency, the feedback from Big Ben, the challenge by Big Ben, he wasn't.

consistent in his effort and performance on the field. You saw his yards per catch go down from the astronomical 21 to 15. Part of that is because you saw him get involved in the screen game, like the old Demarius Thomas-style quick screens to the outside. And you saw him do incredible things with the ball in his hands. He is a weapon. It was a tumultuous year for all Steelers, offensive players. Even though Brown put up the big numbers, you still had Big Ben injured.

So I like Brian. I don't know how much I like him yet. I like him a good bit. And the last thing I... Play more than 11 games, friend. Yeah, I'll take that. And the last thing I wanted to touch on just because we are getting research. My favorite stat that I uncovered going through these guys was Golden Tate. Golden Tate, this year compared to last year, was only down nine receptions. Nine receptions. Nine receptions.