Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Tier Breakdowns, Pat Mayo from FNTSY Network, News

No, it's not easy. We've seen this. We're human beings. They are human beings. Exactly. It makes a big difference. But the truth is... But he's still tier one. There's a gap. There's a gap between him and the next guy. I am madly in love this year with AJ Green. He's a guy that I'm getting in a lot of my leagues. I love AJ. He leads the next tier. But there's a gap there between AJ and Odell Beckham that is not bridged by even the whitest Kardashian. Oh! Oh! Oh!

You just say widest. Hot, yes, it's a large bridge. Oh, man. A pita wide. W-I-D-E-S-T. Got it. Got it. Tier two is interestingly enough, has A.J. Green, Des Bryant, and DeAndre Hopkins, who all three have an average job position in the first round. That's what makes the tier break so interesting. They're all late first round, but they're all still first round picks. We also included Al-Shon Jeffrey, Mike Evans, Alan Robinson, and Brandon Marshall in the tier two.

Now Brandon Marshall right now, if you're drafting, to me, is the worthwhile risk. I understand, like, I know I'm, I'm, like, confident that Fitzpatrick's back. I, but I recognize it's a risk for people right now today to draft Brandon Marshall. You're going Indiana Jones leap of faith. Well, you're after that, you're after the, uh...

He's not going to disappear with Gino Smith, is my point. He's the kind of receiver that it doesn't matter who you are. He's not necessarily going to do what he did last year. He's probably not going to do that with Fitzpatrick. But a third round pick for Brandon Marshall, a guy who finished number three in half-point leagues last year, is a great value to me in that second tier. I agree. Right now, where he's being drafted is he's being drafted as if Gino's his quarterback. So go ahead. Draft them as if Gino's his quarterback. Marshall and the third or Robinson in the second.

I'm going to take the top of the second too. Yeah, Marshall and the third for sure. Okay. Anybody else from Tier 2 you want to discuss real quick? You said you loved AJ Green. I do. AJ Green. They lost Marvin Jones and Mohamed Sanu. Yep. He's always had 10 touchdowns. He's going to be a beast this year. All right. And he knows, you know what? He came out and he was saying he knows it's on his shoulder. Like the passing game. Yeah. Good. And then Iifert's like, whew. Good. I think Iifer was like, ow.

Yeah, that's true. All right, tier three, big extension guy, Keenan Allen. He's got one coming. Good for him. Yes. Because he's not prototypical. Keenan Allen's not the prototypical big, you know, receiver. He's just better. Or big really fast. You know what he reminds me of is what Antonio Brown's done with his career, which is take some of the less measurable, you know.

values and talents, like some separation. Intangibles, if you will. Yeah, but they're tangible. The separation's tangible. The breaks, the reading your quarterback. You know, you cannot go into a combine and test a guy on when my quarterback rolls out of the pocket, do I find space and get open? That's what's so hard about measurables. And Keenan Allen does that kind of thing. All right, Jordy, Nelson, Demarius Thomas, Sammy Watkins, Julian Edelman, Brandon Cooks, and Amari Cooper join him in Tier 3. It's a big old tier.

Yeah, the guys that I just would point out would be Alan and Nelson. These are our consensus tiers. So we had to sit down in a triangle. We butted heads over some. We had to make concessions. We did? Yeah, surprise, surprise. We didn't completely agree. But this is something that we came that we were happy with. I still lean that I think Alan and Nelson belong in tier two, but I'm okay.

I conceded that they're at the top of the tier three. See, to me, you know, we obviously concluded as a group that they were another tier later. But I can agree that Keenan Allen and Jordan Nelson, I would throw Demarius Thomas as well, are the cream of this next tier. They are the guys that... One might argue another tier. Right. You could say that they are... But we chose not to do that.

Based on consensus. Yeah, we try to make it as simple as possible. I will say this. Jordy Nelson News coming out is really good right now. They said that if, you know, he basically came out, was running around and said if there was a game Sunday, I'd be playing. I made a... Which, good. I made a pretty strong push for Jordy Nelson in our League of Record, and I was denied. Denied. All right. I'm going to see if I can outdo you. Because I'm right, man, I'm just remembering all the good times that Jordy had.

And I think he'll be okay. I think he can come back from this. For you, there were good times. For me, they were torturous because Jordy would be doing nothing somehow for three quarters and then two bombs later. I mean, two bombs. It wouldn't be one. It would be like a 74-yard touchdown and a 55-year touchdown or something. It was funny, as a quick aside, to that exact same Jordy Nelson year, I believe, where he saved my bacon. I had this huge comeback and I ended up winning the championship with him. And I believe it was in week 17 that,

He had like two monster bomb drops, like wide open. He was going to take it to the house, like 60 yards. So there's some people who that's their lasting memory of Jordy is him just destroying their dreams while I love him. All right. And, you know, there's a lot of upside guys. There's a lot of youth here. Sammy Watkins, Brandon Cook, Amari Cooper, you know, guys that could.

Jump into the next tier if they perform well, but they have risk. All right, Tier 4, we only have three guys in Tier 4, which was interesting. We labored with this. It's Golden Tate, Jeremy Macklin, Tewy Hilton. They didn't feel like they really belonged in Tier 3. Right. But, you know, the offense for Macklin, Tate, and the, in the, look, did you guys see this report on Jim Bob Cooter's offense that I sent you guys? Yeah, that they're, that they're, it's all new.

This is not what they ran last year. Golden Tate came out and said everything I'm seeing is new. Play calls. We're taking it day by day. It's all new. I think that gives Marvin Jones a clean slate in that offense as opposed to the handicap of Golden Tate. The offense, I would completely agree, but there's still that chemistry that Tate has with Stafford. And so you look at values here in Tier 4.

Tate's going in the fourth. Macklin in the fifth somehow. I don't know why. Macklin's my guy again this year. Unbelievable. The dirty cake. The dirty cake returns. And T. Y. Hilton in the third, you know, those are all good draft picks to me, good values to me in the fourth. So those are some tier four receivers. I'd love to have any of those guys in my wide receiver too. So if I was going, you know, running back, wide receiver, wide receiver running back, and I ended up coming back around in the fourth for Tate or in the third for Hilton, I'm fine with it. Better yet?

How about the fifth for Jeremy Macklin? That's what I'd be going for. Yeah, it's a good value. It's very interesting. And then I don't think I'm going to go into tier five yet, but you can check that on the site. Starts with Michael Floyd. That's your teaser. Ends with Doug Baldwin. As do all things in life for Jason. All right, we're going to jump into tight ends. We know the format. There is the top and the bottom. Tier one. Rob Gronkowski. You might have heard of him.

I'm not going to stay and talk about him for a long time. He belongs in a class by himself. It's a combination of production and longevity of production. It doesn't mean he's not unhealthy. You know, he gets banged up. In fact, they were keeping him out of drills that he's totally healthy to perform in. I do not blame them. Just to keep him healthy. Tier 2, Jordan Reed, we selected Jordan Reed all by himself in Tier 2. If someone has a problem with that, why are they going to have a problem with it?

The only problem I have is because I actually put personally, me personally, not you guys. I put Jordan Reed up in Tier 1 with Rob Gruncowski. I think that Jordan Reed, if he plays all 16, that's a big if, but if he plays all 16, he's going to have a pretty good chance to finish as the overall tight-in one. I agree, and I also agree that he's not going to play 16 games. Tier 3 is the tier to me. So break those down, Jay. Do you have those up? Yeah, Tier 3. You've got Greg Olson.

you know, all-reliable. Kobe Fleener, my heartthrob, Travis Kelsey. Mike's old heartthrob. And Gary Barnage. Nobody's ever loved him. Gary Barnage. The unloved. Yeah, the unloved. Gary Barnage. Those guys represent to me.

consistency and good values in the draft. You know, I really do like Jordan Reed. I have him ranked higher than every single person in this tier as far as where he'll finish scoring. But I'm going to end up with Jordan Reed in exactly zero of my leagues because I don't want to give up the round in which he's going from another position. I'm looking at a 401 average current average draft position because we update it in the draft kit. He's sitting at 401. Does that intrigue you?

It does. It intrigues me. It entices me. So maybe I'll say in exactly 5% of my leagues I'll end up with him. I still don't think I would give up a fourth rounder. I mean, we were just saying, you know, a fourth rounder is going to be a guy like in that tier of wide receiver where maybe T.Y falls to the 401 or Golden Tate should be there. Those guys, I would rather have them than Jordan Reed where I'm going to need more people to fill my flex and my wide receiver and my running back roles.

And I can get somebody, you know, in the eighth, ninth round, who am I getting at wide receiver? Not someone I could just plug and play for a T.Y. Hilton or a Golden Tate replacement. But Jordan Reed to Kobe Fleener? Sure. I'm going to get on a little bit of a tight-in soapbox here. This is an important thing to realize. And I think you guys will be on board with me with this. I was listening to an interview with Ben Watson.

And he talked, you know, the question, he's 35 years old. Why did you dominate in the New Orleans offense last year? It's because they threw him the ball. All right? Now, that wasn't his answer, but that's the abridged version. They threw him the ball. In the NFL, it is the system and the opportunity for these tight ends. Gary Barnage last year has been in the league forever. Zach Miller's been in the league forever, right? We talk about sleepers that we like this year. Vance McDonald? Yeah.

Opportunity. The athleticism, it's of these big guys at the tight-in. How many times have we said somebody is super athletic a tight-in, and they don't pan out? Because they don't get thrown the ball. We're talking to you, Jordan Cameron. Sure.

We're talking to Gates, La Darius Green last year. Talking to you, Virgil Green. It is so much. I'm just realizing this about the tight-end position. This is why you're going to have five guys surprise you every single year and you're never going to predict it. Maybe it's Dwayne Allen. Maybe it's Vance McDonald. Maybe it's somebody in Tier 5 like ASJ. If they don't throw ASJ at the ball, I don't care if he can dunk it from the free throw line. It doesn't make a difference.

Well, it would be a cool celebration. And that was part of what Ben Watson said. He says, you know, it's a team game. There's 11 guys. They said, are you going to repeat the numbers? He said, hopefully, if they, you know, it's like, I hope so. So, I mean, essentially, that's my point about tight ends. And it's probably useless for everybody who's listening, maybe, because, you know, how does that help you draft? But I just think that that's what you're seeing. That's how Gary Barnish can come out of nowhere. That's how Zach Miller can come out of nowhere.

And that's why we say draft the guy late. I think that's where it helps. Let's take a look real quick at Tier 4 because this is, to me, the last tier of like, these guys are great. I think this tier is like, I am not just okay with, I'm happy with. All right. Zach Ertz? Yeah. Antonio Gates, Delaney Walker, Tyler Eifford, and Eric Eber. Now, let me ask a question for all the people who think we're fading Eifford too much. If the news at Eifert comes back strong,

Because we know he's under the weather. As in playing all 16. Well, as in he's ready to go for the season because it was the ankle surgery. Is that what happened? Yeah, he moves up to Tier 3. Okay. I just wanted to confirm that. Absolutely does. Yep. Heifer is not somebody we're trying to destroy his value on. He's somebody that we're trying to say. We hate Tyler.

Look at all the top tight-ins last year. None of them had 50 catches like Eifford did. He had 52 or whatever it was. Yeah, I mean, we love Eifer. Last year, Eifford was one of our most recommended tight-ins to get because his value was great. Draft based on value. So, all right, we're going to take a second. We're going to ask some questions about all these guys to Mr. Pat Mayo, the Fancy Sports Network, who pretty much dominates year-round for that network. So we're going to talk to him right now. You talking to me?

I've been listening to House Music now for about 15 minutes because there is no other way that you can prepare yourself for the energy attack that is Pat Mayo. So the fantasy footballers are pleased to bring back. Good friend of the show, Pat Mayo. Welcome back, my friend. How are you doing?