Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Big Questions, Waiver Pickups, News

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This is all we do. We don't have network backing. The sponsors help support the show. So we really appreciate you got, you know, we're selective in the ones we pick. So we appreciate you supporting them and supporting us. So next big question, guys, what will David Johnson's workload?

Look like this season. That has been an offseason question. Extraordinary because some people want to take the leap with David Johnson. They want to put them on the top of the mountain, so to speak. Others hesitant. Chris Johnson, he did really good last year in the Cardinals' offense and what will they do with David Johnson. So that's one of the big questions this year that we'll be looking for, especially in the early part of the season. What will David Johnson's workload actually be?

Mike? Look into your crystal ball. Oh, for me, look, you know, you know how I feel about my man. My man, David Johnson, he's my number one running back. I've been seeing what they've been doing in preseason. And when the starters were out there, it was David Johnson. He is just, he has such an integral part now of what their offense can do. We've already seen the huge passing game that Bruce Ariens has instated here with Carson Palmer.

And now, now defenses actually have to respect that and the run of David Johnson and the pass catching ability. That's, to me, the best part about David Johnson is you can't game script him out. You cannot because he's such a great pass catcher. This isn't a situation where it's a two-down banger. Like, for me, the concerns about Thomas Rawls, what if they get way behind? We're going to talk about that question of what does that look like. But for me,

David Johnson, everything I've seen from the Cardinals is they say he's going to be in. As long as he is, the conditioning is there, David Johnson is going to play and score a bunch, ooh, a bunch of fantasy points. Yeah, I've been more and more confident lately. You know me, I'm Mr. Risk andverse. You've been the most reluctant.

Yeah, and I've said that I expect good things for him, but I've been risk adverse in those first two rounds because of the fact that we have a small sample size and we don't know. But everything out of the coach's mouths, everything that we've talked to David Johnson personally, you know, and when we were talking to him, things sounded good, everything we've seen in preseason, in training camp, it really does seem like, look, this is David Johnson's...

job. Chris Johnson will get involved. Andre Ellington will come in for a spell or two. But Chris John, there's no chance barring injury that David Johnson doesn't get a workload large enough to be a fantasy star. All right. Next question for you guys. How will the Miami receiving game shake out? Now let me shut the table here. We know that Adam Gase is in Miami now. Another, another fresh start for Ryan Tannahill, so to speak. Another opportunity for him.

You have Jarvis Landry. Now, Jarvis Landry dominated the receiving game last year, 110 receptions over 1100 yards. He only scored four touchdowns, but he's that PPR machine that we know he is. Oh, I think we all expect him to continue. The next closest receiver was Lamar Miller last year with 47 receptions from the running back. But Andy, he's a running back. Right, right. He's the running back. That is the question then, is there going to be, I think it begs a couple of questions here. One is, if there is.

Okay, let's hand it to Kenny Stills. We just handed the second wide receiver to Kenny Stills. Does that matter? I mean, Richard Matthews had 43 receptions last year. In 11 games. In 11 games, Richard Matthews had the 43 for over 660 yards and four touchdowns. He was averaging over 15 yards a catch. And Kenny Stills has shown throughout his career. That's what he was in New Orleans. He was a guy who could go deep.

When he was with Drew Breeze, Kenny Stills was, in fact, the most efficient receiver. Okay, but Richard and Matthews numbers, that's three, almost four catches a game. Is that enough to be fantasy relevant? That's the question is Kenny Stills can have all of the former Mike hype, but is it enough? I mean, four catches a game? I think that it's enough for where Kenny Stills is going in the draft. You're talking about a guy extremely late that...

that could turn into a weekly wide receiver 3, maybe even a flex. We've seen the targets there over the preseason. If you watched any of the Miami games, what's the actual breakdown? Jarvis Landry had 13 targets. Kenny Stills had 11 targets. No, he looked good in the preseason. It's just, I'm curious how it'll shake out. That's fair. I'm buying into Kenny Stills as one of, as a late round target, as a waiver wire target right now.

You have a very, very low risk for a guy that I can provide you a nice, nice baseline. We've seen Adam Gase before. And this offense, it's going to be different because he has Jarvis Landry. But Adam Gase's offenses like to target the guy on the outside. And we've seen it with Demarius Thomas. We've seen it when he was in Chicago. These targets just happened to find their way. And Kenny Stills.

Kenny Stills is going to play that role in the offense as of right now. Maybe Devante Parker has enough later to overtake him. But for right now, it's Kenny Stills and you're going to get deep shots. You're going to get touchdowns. So he is in the perfect scenario to fit with his talent for me. I definitely think he's a perfect steal right now. If people have drafted him or if he's sitting on Waver-Wire. Yeah, I was going to say I agree with both of you. I think that Kenny Stills might be. Yeah, but who do you agree with most? His upside is probably not.

high enough to be truly super fantasy relevant. But for where he's going in the draft, he gives you a guy that's a plug and play. You're not going to get a zero out of them if you need to throw him in your flex because he's involved enough, especially with Devante Parker out. But really, how I expect the Miami Dolphins offense to shake out through its receivers is the Jarvis Landry show again. I don't see, I mean, if you look at the first two years for Jarvis Landry in the league, I mean, he's on incredible

Pace. And because he works out of the slot so much, people don't want him. And I say that's silly. He's, I think, how old is Jarvis Landry? He's super young, right? Yeah, he's same draft class as O'Dall Buckham, Jr. Yes.

He's 23 years old. He's a 23-year-old young man, and he has two years in the league where he's already been a fantasy option that is a high-end wide receiver too. So in my book, I think Jarvis Landry is safe and a good value right now. All right. Let's talk about Baltimore. Will we have actual fantasy-relevant players in Baltimore? That's one of the big questions for this season.

You have Mike Wallace that has arrived in his pit. It might be healthy. You have Steve Smith returning from a devastating tear to the Achilles. Rashab Perriman back on the field. Oh, yeah. Kamar Aiken still involved went very high in our League of Record draft yesterday. I love Kamar Aiken, but that was way too high.

So let's talk about last year. The rushing statistics last year, nobody had more than 151 attempts on the ground, which really would have if Aaron Donald wasn't such a savage man and broke it Justin Forsett's arm. Yes, that is true. 151 attempts last year by Forset at 4.2 a carry. You had Givorius Allen got in there for 137. Terrence West had some carries last year. And then on the receiving side,

Camar Aiken led the way with 75 receptions. We know what happened to that wide receiver court last year. It was demolished. And again, Buck Allen was third there. So he offers some receiving and passing game value. But let's answer the question that we'll be watching for here in your own mind. What fantasy relevant players will exist in Baltimore? Fantasy relevant players to me, I think you're going to have Justin Fawcett and Kenneth Dixon as the two.

running backs who on the season will be fantasy relevant. I think Justin Fawcett, I've said it before. I think he is going to take the job that was already his, that he did well the last two seasons when he was healthy. As the long-term play, though, Kenneth Dixon looked amazing in preseason, was talked up. He looked great in college as well. When he gets healthy and gets involved, I expect then there to be kind of a shift more towards the future. Those are the two running backs I want. At wide receiver, the only guy I want is

is Aiken, and then I would take a very, very late flyer on Steve Smith because, look, I don't think at 37 years old he's going to come back from a double torn Achilles. Double ruptured. Double ruptured Achilles. I don't expect it to happen. But the risk versus reward there is like, you know, when you're taking a Steve Smith versus guys whose upside is nothing, I would rather do that because, you know, two weeks into the season, he's either going to be on my RR, on the waiver, or startable.

That's what I look for. All right. All right. So that'll be one of the things we're watching closely. The fantasy relevance of a Baltimore team that should pass the ball a lot should, I think, have a pretty good offense. We just don't know where the ball is going to distribute. And so we need to pay attention there. Will the Packers' offense rebound with Jordy Nelson back in the fold? Or will they look like last year? And just so you know and understand the difference between the 2014 and 2015 Packers.

Eddie Lacey in 2014. 246 carries 1100 yards and nine touchdowns had another four through the air. Monster season. Eddie Lacey last year, 187 for 758 and 3. Horribly disappointing. Look at this number last year. Eddie Lacey last year, 1.6 yards per carry in the red zone in 2015. Dead last in the league in that statistic. So bad year last year, but if you can forget last year,

and look back two years. Jordan Nelson had almost 100 catches, 1,500 plus yards, and 13 touchdowns. I don't know if we expect that from him, but is he enough to get them back on track or no? And that's the question we're asking. That's the question we'll be watching for. Because it makes such a difference to Aaron Rogers, Eddie Lacey, Randall Cobb. I mean, this whole offense is either a fantasy force or it's a fantasy disappointment. Yeah, I think Jordan Nelson does.

I think he makes that big of an impact that it can turn things around for the Packers. Another question I'm going to throw out, who is the wide receiver three? Devante Adams. Sure. As of right now, everything, we feel like is Devante Adams. But is there, can Aberderas surpass him? He's had a pretty solid preseason. Is Montgomery...

going to recover and be able, maybe he can step in and be that third guy. We know that Jeff Janice has the broken hand, so it's unlikely to be him at this point, or at least towards the beginning of the season. But do you, that's one of the things that I am watching. Is Adams still playing that role of being the Limburger, the Limburger for the Green Bay Packers? Because he will be the stinkiest of the cheese, which he has been in his career. So will Jared Aberderas.

overtake him and be a free guy on the waiver. I wonder how many more eye rolls I could give Devante Adams. Like if I was Rogers. And how many more can Mike McCarthy give him? That's what I mean. I would want to make a change because Rogers does so much for that offense. He needs reliable wide receivers. I think Devonte Adams. Very nice cheese related comparison. Look, I will say this. If Jordy rebounds and the Packers are what they were two years ago and three years ago,

Then I think Devante Adams actually has a decent season. Because in those seasons, the wide receiver three was good. And you have to keep in mind, Devante Adams went from being like this third wide receiver caliber player to getting, he was truly the number one wide receiver. He had the number one, you know,

defense on him. He could not handle that. He is not good enough for that, but he is good enough to play a productive wide receiver three role. And clearly, Mike McCarthy and the Packers, much to the chagrin of all fantasy owners, they're sticking with him. We've seen that in preseason. We've seen it in everything that's been said. He's got the opportunity. So my point is, look, if the Packers do rebound, then Devante Adams is going to be fine. If they don't rebound, then whoever the three is is irrelevant.