Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Free Agent Preview, Super Bowl Recap, Mailbag

And then Ronnie Hillman, Tim Hightower, and Ahmaud Bradshaw. Those are the kind of the other big running back names on the list right now. Other guys could come into play like Arian Foster if he's cut. But let's pick a guy out, give me a couple thoughts on it, maybe the New York situation. Well, I've got a, yeah, the situation that I want to talk about that I think is really interesting from just a parallel perspective, which is.

teams that have a lot of money invested in their defense that have their quarterback running back and backup running back, which is both the Broncos and the Jets. Both of those with Chris Ibrahim and Belal Powell being free agents and Ronnie Hillman and C.J. Anderson. It's going to be very interesting to see what happens here. And I don't see where you can bring back. You can't put a lot of that money into the running back position. You just can't. Both of these teams are a little cash strapped right now.

So for me, I'm interested to see what happens in those two situations. I expect Chris Ivory to be out, Belal Powell, to be in for the death. As a piece, though, right? Yes. Not as a main line. Somebody else has to come in there and be the primary ball carrier. Mm-hmm. Which the New York situation is very interesting to me, because I agree. I think ivory, I believe he'll be going, he'll be moving on, and that's kind of what the ESPN rumors and everything have.

have been relaying. But Powell was so good down the stretch. Pass catching, man. And is a very versatile back. I don't see how you can't bring him back. And you won't have to pay him a bunch of money either. All right. Before we talk about some wide receivers, the big names, and some other guys on the list, I'm going to give you guys quick hitting questions real fast on some of these running backs in the fantasy context here. So Chris Johnson, if he's back with Arizona, what's his fantasy relevance? Is it there? He's a backup. Back up.

Alfred Morris is only 27. He's had a lot of tried on the tires. If he lands someplace else, could he surprise us with his fantasy relevance? He is a guy that going to the Jets, you combine Alfred Morris and Bilal Powell, and you have a similar situation, he would have value to me. Yeah, anywhere else, I was going to say mostly no. All right. Legerat Blunt's 29, but if he's in the right situation, which is on the goal line in New England.

Is Ligaritt Blunt the same as he was this past year in your mind? Same or worse, which isn't that great. Same or worse. Same or worse. All right. Ronnie Hillman's 24 years old, Mike, and you despise him. However, 4.4.2 a carry on the year. Young has a skill set, right? He's not the between the tackle guy. He's not C.G. Anderson. He doesn't have the balance or the size or the strength or the skill.

But he's lacking really all of the aspects that I look for in an NFL running back. What's funny is I can step back and go, you know what, Ronnie Hillman was the starting running back for the majority of the year on the world champion, Denver Broncos. There you go. And so. And not in the Super Bowl. Ronnie Hillman. Does he come back to Denver? And if he does, do you still despise him? Yep. And yep. Okay.

Tim Hightower, does he have a role next year with Ingram back? Oh, I hope so. I don't think he'll have a major role, but I hope he takes over that Kyrie Robinson role, which was used enough to be fantasy relevant when Kyrie was there. So I'm really hoping they bring Tim Hytaire. They're interesting because Kyrie is a restricted free agent. Travarez Cadet is gone. Is he? Yeah, he's a free agent, yeah.

Okay, what I'm saying, he was on the team, and these are guys that could come back. They really need to clarify that situation before we have any idea what's going on, but it could be the Ingram and Hightower show. They've always wanted a guy like Ingram or Robinson, Ivory in the past, that can come in and just take over if they need to. So I agree with you guys. Wide receivers. All right, this is called three names and some more guys.

That's what I'm calling the wide receivers. All right. Because I want to spend most of our time talking about three guys. There's a fourth name on here that I'm pretty sure you're leaving out of your big three. Okay. James Jones? Nope. Okay. Yeah, I'm at a loss too. I'm like, I see who the three are. All right. We'll get to them. We'll get to them. If it's Roob's, I'm going to laugh at you. It's definitely Ruben Randall. Yes. There's three guys that are...

Okay, okay, no, that's fair. That's fine, because you're right. He's 24 years old. He's going to get paid. Alshan Jeffrey, Travis Benjamin, Marvin Jones, and Ruben Randall. Ruben Randall. I like Richard Matthews more than Ruben Randall. Ruben Randall. All right. Alshan Jeffrey, staying or going. What do we know, people? There's a lot of owners of dynasty teams, keeper leagues. Oh, what's going to happen to my Alshan? Staying.

I hope he's staying. I think he's going to stay. All the reports are that it's probable he's going to stay. He's likely to return to Chicago where he needs to be. He's the number one guy. They don't know what they have in Kevin White yet. So, yeah, Alshan Jeffrey is back and you want him paired up with Jay Cuddy. From what I understand, he has said that of all the places he wants to be injured for the majority of the season, Chicago's really where he enjoys it the most. The hospitals.

The rehab center. Alshan was just trying to prove how good he was that he's like, dude, I don't even need to do good on my contract year. Just watch. I'm going to be injured half the year. It's an interesting strategy. But nine games, 54 for 807 and 4, proving when he plays, he's a monster. Good grief. That's a monster line. Yeah, it is. Especially if he was handicapped in some of those games, which he probably was. Yeah, he was. He was very hobbled after some of those weeks when he came back, he was barely in that game. When he runs off the sideline,

Fox goes, how many of your various muscles are hurting? You know, it's a quiz. Is it 2, 3, 4? He's always got a soft tissue issue, it seems like. A soft tissue issue. He's got a tissue issue. He's got a tissue issue. All right, but Al-Shan Jeffrey's a hyper-talented player, a really good player, and he has a built-in rapport with the quarterback. If he lands somewhere else, we don't know what that is. Sure, it'd be great to land with Tom Brady, but... And he's 25. He's still, I mean...

You know, he's not Jordy Nelson age. He is doing good. Poor Jordy Nelson. On the age front. It's just funny to have his name associated with the age. Old Jordan Nelson aged players. Does Bryant, you consider still, like, you know. Young. Yeah, young. And he's 27. He's got two extra years. Yeah, another young guy. So, Alsham, we won't talk a lot about him because we think he'll stay there. You have to franchise. And if he's franchised or stays there.

We project him for it as a top 12 guy. Absolutely. Top five. So Travis... No, that's fair. Burn it down. I think that's fair. If you play 16. There's some big names out there. Well, yeah, we'll see. Yeah, I was about to ask you who you're putting him in front of. Man, Jason is scorching today. The takes. It's like, yeah. He said the Super Bowl is over, and that only brings fuel to my takes. Yeah, Sam Bradford.

I have no take on Sam Bradford other than he's going back to the Eagles. Jason is the red log from back to the future. His ideal team is Matt Forte and Sam Bradford. Just put him together. All right. So Travis Benjamin is a guy that I've really come around on as an actual viable, real potential one B type of guy. That was quite a roller coaster of your opinion. He's Golden Tate. He's Golden Tate to me where I don't believe Golden Tate can hold.

I know we disagree a little bit. I don't think Golden Tate's a one. There's something about the size of the guy and the performance on the field. I think they're great 1Bs, though. I can give him the 1B title. Travis Benjamin, almost 1,000 yards with a hodgepodge of quarterbacks in Cleveland, five touchdowns. Really good drop rate, as in not a high one. Catch rate. Strong catch rate. Really good catch rate. And I believe he's back with Cleveland. So that begs the question.

Is that good? Is that a good thing? Oh, okay, here's the deal. I want to know what the deal is. I still like Josh McCowan, and people think, that's kind of weird. Look what Josh McCowne has actually done the last couple years for fantasy, for not necessarily playing him, but for wide receivers. You had Benjamin this year.

And I'm going to include Barnage in that as well. Sure. The previous year, you had Mike Evans. The year before that, you had Alshan and Marshall. Oh, Altson exploded. So McCown can get it done for fantasy for wide receivers. On top of that, I am in the camp that Flash Gordon, Josh Gordon, is going to be back this year. Me too. You put Josh Gordon and Travis Benjamin, who has emerged, and if he can truly be a 1B,

That is an insane vertical attack with those two guys. You get a strong slot presence in there. And Gary Barnage, that's very interesting for fantasy purposes. And a pass catcher out of the backfield with Duke Johnson. Yeah, it'll be difficult to screw that up, but they'll do it. Wait, who's the guy? Who did I have going there? I had a run back. Hot take. What running back did I send up there? Oh, was it Lamar Mill? No.

You did send Lamar Miller out there. Did I? Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah, put Lamar Miller on there. I don't think that's the guy they're looking for. They're looking for more of an Alf, believe it or not. But Travis Benjamin, somebody, okay, let's say he hits the market, though. He'll be in demand because there aren't a lot of really big names. The only guy I like, you know, assuming Jeffrey's back, I'm not even putting him out on the open market. I think there's only one other name I like more than Travis Benjamin.

You like him more? I do. I like Marvin Jones more than Travis Benjamin as well. I might even like Rubes a little bit better just because he's two years younger. If I'm a GM and going out and making a splash, I would probably lean that way. So a Travis Benjamin destination, it's going to always be thrown out there, the New England type of thing. Can you get another guy? Brandon Lafell's days are numbered in drops.

like five drops today, five drops tomorrow. No, but somebody, a reliable weapon, they've been trying to find that match for Brady. I don't know if we're wrong in the fantasy world to want it anymore. I think we might be that game is not a vertical game anymore. It's a Julian Edelman underneath Amandola, Grancowski. He's not taking, I mean, he did throw a lot up to LaFelle. I was going to say LaFelle was, could have been a great fantasy option if it just caught the ball. And the separation wasn't there either on those deep doors. It was separated enough.

He hit him in the hands. Just catch it. So let's move on to Marvin Jones here. We've heard destinations for him like Detroit. Marvin Jones is really coming out of the right time. He's already said no hometown discount for Cincinnati. Good for you. He's excited to hit the market. And why not? It's one of those things where Ben, not Benjamin. Jones can go out and make a lot of money and be a contributing player someplace else. We saw Golden Tate do this. Golden Tate left Seattle.

Because he was just going to get paid. He'd be paid better and he could contribute and have a bigger opportunity someplace. I like Marvin Jones, over 800 yards, four touchdowns. So what do you think about him? Is he somebody that we could see Splash?

in the right destination. Yeah, Marvin Lewis, the head coach of the Bengals, he said before the year when he was asked, who on your team hasn't scratched the surface, you know, hasn't really, yeah, his potential. And he said, without a doubt, it was super quick, Marvin Jones, says he hasn't even come close to scratching the tip of the potential. The guy is incredibly talented and his ceiling is super high. I believe that as a player. He will go somewhere else almost for sure. Yeah. I think that's a given.

He's one of the guys I think has almost no chance to return. And his entire output, I mean, this is, we've talked about it in prior weeks. Targets equals production for the receiver position. So it's going to be opportunity. Is he going to a place where he's the two? Is he going to go to a place where he is the, you know, the one?

de facto if they are you know really in need if Travis Benjamin leaves the Browns and Marvin Jones goes to the Browns type of situation the Giants might be in need of a pass catcher if Ruben Randall moves on which I expect him to do and

and put Marvin Jones in there with Beckham. It's a very interesting combination. No, I agree with you on that one. That's an interesting place for him to land. But we'll monitor Marvin Jones for sure. He'll be one of the bigger names. And some other guys, we're going to go through him real quick again. I'm going to let people know who's out there, how it affects the depth charts. Anquam Bolden, he's going to be 35, but he still contributed in a big way last year, and they need somebody to catch the ball there.