Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - Early Sleepers & Values, Maclin Talk

Macklin. That's that news. Now we've got Eric Decker. Yeah. Released by the Jets. Jets tried to trade him. Where does Eric Decker end up now that he's been released by the Jets? And does he make a fantasy impact? I have no idea. I have no idea where Eric Decker is going to go. There's apparently more rumors in the bushes that Baltimore may not be done. And they're going to try to acquire Eric Decker.

We'll see. Does that mean Philadelphia wants somebody? Or was this a hometown guy only situation? I was just going to say if Philly was going after Macklin, I mean, you could make that argument that maybe they just wanted him back. But I think they want to prove that Carson Wins is, you know, the future star. And they want, you know, every asset they can have. So I think Eric Decker is in play for the Eagles. Yeah. Okay. And you still have. There was a report from Mike Garofalo saying that he doubted the Eagles will pursue him.

only because Macklin was the hometown guy. But we will see. They have been willing to sign a ton of wide receivers this off season. And Buffalo makes a lot of sense. That doesn't mean that Buffalo is going to go after him. And I think Arizona makes a lot of sense. Secure the wide receiver position as their Super Bowl window is just cracked. It's just cracked. I mean, there's not many insects that can actually fit through the crack of this Super Bowl window.

If they want to go for it, I think that makes sense. Cameron Meredith, we didn't mention this news. I guess we didn't mention it when it broke. Cameron Meredith is going to miss the remainder of the offseason program with a thumb injury. It's a setback for Meredith, somebody that you wanted to see established himself in Chicago early on as a potential target in the offense. When the news was floating around, it was, well, he'll be back by training camp. Oh.

surgery has not been ruled out. So we're still not 100% sure what's going on with the thumb. But if he's back by training camp, I think it's everything that will still be on target. Big Matt Harmon, Matt Harmon supports Cameron Meredith in what he did last year. Yeah, he looked great. I mean, you know, our what's on tape series liked Cam Meredith. I know you called Cam Meredith Andy last year before he really broke out as, you know, a good breakout candidate. So.

Cam, get back to camp soon. You need to develop that rapport with wins. Julian. Mike Lennon. Gillian. Yeah, right. Sure. Wink, wink. Gillian Edelman, to your contract extension through 2019, $5 million signing bonus. Well, he's still there. Yeah. And catching a thousand passes from Tom Brady. You got to retract your Bershard Perriman sleeper alert. Sleeper alert.

I now have to pull back on my hope for Brandon Cook's dynasty next year, trying to go fortune teller. Edelman's there. He's going to be there for the foreseeable future. They paid him. They extended him. This doesn't seem like a simple workaround of salary cap to me. This seems like they want him to be on the team moving forward. Lions camp, offensive lineman Taylor Decker. What's the story with Taylor Decker and your hope for that offensive line, Amir Abdullah? Yeah, it's a huge hit.

for the lion's offensive. Surgery, torn labrum, recovery time is four to six months. Yeah, he is a candidate to start the league or start the year on the pop list. We don't know if he's, I'm saying coach, now his name is escaping me, Detroit's coach. Caldwell? Thank you. Caldwell, he's said he thinks he'll be back sometime during the season, so that's at least positive news, but that's a big hit for that offensive line.

I'm not lowering Amir Abdullah in my projections. I think that they can still survive with lower quality left tackle play. But it also could be a hit for Stafford if he's going to take damage from the left side. Tyreek Hill, not going to return kickoffs this year, according to Special Teams coordinator for the Chiefs. That's because Andy Reid's come out and said Tyree Kills the number one wide receiver on that team.

Might still be used as the punt returner. My guess is they'll use them selectively as a punt returner in situations where punting to him is going to really benefit the team. But, you know, games are out of hand. They'll lower the risk. Yeah. You could take this as good news if you're a Tyreek supporter in the sense that the fact that they're saying, hey, our best guy at returning kickoffs, we're going to not do that. It's obviously because they genuinely plan on getting him involved. They can't have him hurt on kickoffs. More work going to him.

But if you're in any kind of return yardage league, he's no longer the golden star. Right, exactly. All right, let's play the alphabet game. We got X's and Y's and Z's. Let's talk about the news that there are two reports that came out, one that said Josh Doxon is going to be in the Z receiver role, which was Pierre Garcin. Which was Pierre Garcin's role. And then another report came out saying James and Cratter is going to play in all the two ride receiver sets, which...

It seems to contradict the report to a degree, right? Well, to me, it's, it would, also in that report, it said that when they go to three websites. Because Crowder's the Z on two wide supersets. Right. And so when they go three, then Docksen, or Crowder will slide back into the slot. Yes. And Doxon will replace him. So I just wanted to bring this up because on the surface, it's, whoa, that's either a big boost for Crowder and a big hit for Josh Doxon because.

Doxon won't be in on three wide receiver sets. However, only 14% of passing plays for Washington were two wide receiver sets. So this is not a...

This doesn't move groundbreaking. This doesn't move the needle for me. The more important of those two reports then would be that Doxon would be going into the role. If this report is accurate, the more important, relevant report is the fact that he is set to take over the Pierre Garcin role in the office. That doesn't mean the targets would be the same. He's obviously a different player, but as far as where he's lining up in that offense, he would be taking on more of that role. And that role has equated to about 72 catches and 800-something yards over the last three years.

That's the average for Garsohn in that role. But that was, that's Garsohn. So Josh Doxon can still, that's not, that's not his ceiling to me. You have young Josh Doxon. No, I don't think it's a ceiling, but I think it's important perspective. Sure. Because there are some that would want to anoint, like they hear that report and it's glowing. To me, I'm saying even Pierre Garcin and just got paid to go to San Francisco, who was in that position in that offense, average 72 receptions and 880s. I mean, is this not how we were already projecting? It is. Because I was going to say this is.

I was already kind of putting Doxon in that Pierre-Garson role. And the deep threat is Terrell-Pryor. His role is locked and loaded. I mean, he's not coming off the field. But this is a good-looking offense. I think it's an underrated offense because everyone's freaking out about Garsohn and Dejax leaving, but they have a growing talent in Crowder. Two great running backs. They have a very powerful offense to me. All right. Speaking of the running backs, I need to get Brooks's take.

on this next bit of news. Go ahead. That's Washington's OC has said they're going to go with the hot hand at running back. I wanted to go live to Brooks here who snatched Somaget P. Ryan in front of me in the rookie draft. I want to know how do you feel about that knowing that Rob Kelly, who's on my team, may be eating snaps from your sensational rookie? Thoughts, Brooks. I think P. Ryan, he's going to get it eventually.

He's going to take it and run with him. Take that, Brooks. Hot hand. Hot hand. Yeah. That made this make me so sad. Is his hand as hot as Matt Jones's hand was or is this Rob Kelly's hot hand? This is one of those reports that comes out and just verifies exactly what we were already assuming. It's like, okay, I assumed Rob Kelly would start the year as the starter. What are you going to say right now before camp battles begin? If he's great, he'll keep it, right? Right. I selfishly put this in here so I can mock Brooks.

Yeah, no, that's fine. Eddie Lacey's met his June weight target, came in under 250 pounds. Good for you, Lacey. Keep it going, man. I told Jason, every time he hits one of these thresholds, I'm giving him that slight bump. I just want you guys. Because I had him buried. I just want you guys to eventually come to where I've been at. The buffet? Yeah, me and Eddie. I told Jason, I said it hurts my heart so much to speak negatively because I've loved Eddie Lacey for his entire career.

I want to love you, Eddie. He's very good. We're done with the news. We're going to jump right into sleepers and values. Before you do that, I want to thank Thumbtack. Today's episode is brought to you by Thumbtack. It's an app and it makes it easy to hire and find skilled local professionals for anything on your list. And I do mean anything. You're talking about...

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Interesting, Mike. Well done. I'm fired up. I'm not going to sleep. It's not going to last long because I'm going to drop the name Robert Woods. Oh. That's the thing about sleepers is that everyone's sleeping on them, right? I went with Robert Woods for my sleeper. And for those of you out there saying things like, huh, Robert Woods or who's Robert Woods? Or saying, are you sure you want to do that? Robert Woods is 25 years old. And if you didn't know, he's a wide receiver.

for the Los Angeles Rams. And he's basically free in draft. And he's basically the one on the Rams. And look, this is a team that had a thousand blemishes last year, okay? We would all admit. In fact, if they came out with a 2016 album for the Los Angeles Rams, the title would be a thousand blemishes. Sorry, Jared Goff as the lead singer. But to me, you also have to look, Kenny Britt, a thousand yard season in that offense last year.

Robert Woods is somebody who, when I've watched him, he has always passed the eye test. Like I said, 25 years old, free agent contract, Buffalo didn't throw the ball. Buffalo was always in the bottom of the league in terms of percentage of balls thrown passing offense-wise. So you had 51% of the time they threw the ball. Well, in Sean McVeigh's offenses, it's been at 62, 63%. Greg Olson, the quarterback's coach, has been to 63, 64% when he was with Jacksonville.

Now you're coming from 51% of the time in Buffalo. I think you're going to be more near that 60% of the time in Los Angeles. And we've talked extensively about Baltimore. Oh my gosh. All the targets are gone in Baltimore. They're gone in Los Angeles too. Kenny Britt, Kendrix, Brian Quick, Cunningham. That's 296 passing targets in that offense. That's 55% of their passing offense. So to me, between the coaching change.

the free agent investment, and what I've seen with Robert Woods, with my eyeballs, this is 100 target season for Robert Woods. This is a chance to make a huge impact. You've got rookies all around you. So to me, I think a great sleeper pick is Robert Woods. I love him in deep leagues. I love him in leagues where you're waiting on a wide receiver and you're saying to yourself, boy, I'd love to grab somebody in the late rounds that I could potentially start. You could start Robert Woods. That's my opinion. And he's a 14th round pick right now. Yeah, I don't.

I don't dislike it by any means. We talk about, you know, you want a running back to be on a higher scoring offense. You want positive game scripts. Well, I want wide receivers where I know they're going to throw the ball. And Robert Woods certainly fits that bill. Can Cooper Cup establish himself as the one? Probably not. Josh Reynolds. Mike Thomas. I mean, Robert Woods is. Dave on Austin. Yeah.

That's really funny. No, no, no, Daveon gets forgotten all the time. I'm sorry, Mr. Austin. No, but he's not going to establish himself as the one. Which is a possession guy. I'm not expecting a bunch of touchdowns from him. Right. But I'm expecting catches. Yeah. All right. Mike, who do you got? All right. I'm going to jump in here with a player who is being forgotten. And admittedly, even by myself, I feel like I've overlooked what he did last year. And that is Taylor Gabriel. Hmm.