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

It's odd when I'm not actually doing, or talking about fantasy or on camera, I'm actually incredibly low energy, which is kind of strange. Maybe I can serve it all as the day goes along. I say you probably burn it all out when the cameras are rolling. You're like a Tasmanian devil. Then I take a nap, so I encourage. Just crash. All right, we're going to start it off with an easy one. We're looking at running backs and just some other rankings and tears and things. But Levi-on Bell.

Pat Mayotte, we have Levi-on-Bel in a tier all by himself. How do you feel about the top of the running back position this year? I'm with you with Levi-on-Bel. I think that he's the clear number one, especially in PPR formats, just the work that he can do, not only as a dump-off receiver, but running actual routes, like splitting out wide, getting his a dot down the field. When you normally look at running backs and you see their average depth of target, it's, you know,

probably in the negatives, because they're getting thrown to behind the line of scrimmage. Not Leveon Bell. He's getting targeted deep down field, so he has the opportunity for bigger plays, scoring more touchdowns through the passing game. So I'm good with him up there. I guess the injuries worry me a bit, but regardless of whether I get fell or not, I will definitely be having DeAngelo Williams on my team, just, you know, in case. So you're of the opinion that...

If I heard you right, you'll be grabbing DeAngelo Williams even if you don't have Lev Bell, or did I mishear you? No, that is 100% what I said. So, basically, we saw what DeAngelo Williams did last year without Levy on Bell around. He got all the carries, he got all the targets out of the backfield. He scored all the touchdowns. I think he had 12 when all of a sudden done. And, you know, he started, what, nine games-ish? So I just think it.

Harkens back to a situation I encountered a really long time ago when I drafted Larry Johnson everywhere when Priest Holmes was the starter. And then Priest Holmes goes down like week two or something like that. And Larry Johnson becomes a top five guy the rest of the season. I think if you're going to allocate spots on your bench.

You don't necessarily need to devote them to handcuffs. Just because you don't have Levi-on-Bel doesn't mean that DeAngelo Williams is worthless if LaVian Bell goes down. It's a great way to potentially seize an opportunity to get a top five back without having to pay any sort of price on it. Sure. Very interesting. We were just talking about that, I believe, on Tuesday's show. So let's move to a guy. Let me ask one one. Is Lev Bell your overall number one, or do you lean like an Antonio Brown or Julio?

No, I'm going heavy receiver at the top. So I haven't done my full top 300 yet, but I would assume where I sit right now that Brown, Jones, Beckham, and Hopkins would all be over him. Wow. Yeah, you know, it's a strange world we live in. We were talking the other day, and I had the third pick in a PPR. And Antonio Brown, Julio Jones were off the board. And in a PPR, I went with Levion Bell because he's so good. And I said if it was a standard.

I would go with the wide receiver in Odell Beckham. The scripts have been flipped in the NFL right now. So let's move to a guy. If you don't know Mayo and his work.

Pat Mayo hates this guy. He hates him so much that he has to have a guest ranker. We're talking, of course, of Mark Ingram. Pat Mayo, we need you on the Mark Ingram train. When will you accept responsibility for what you have done in tarnishing the name of Mark Ingram that he might actually be a good running back? He's not.

Piece of garbage. So how do you explain his season last year where he was before going down in, I believe, week 12, he was a top five guy. Great. No, that's fine. You can have them. I didn't have them. I won everything. I want everything. I won a championship with, well, I guess it was Tim Hightower by that time. Tim Hightower, way better. Oh, we're getting into the hot takes early. All right, well, then we'll jump off of Ingram. You've got Elliot.

Ezekiel Elliott here at number four, which is not an uncommon spot, but you are comfortable jumping in on EZE there at number four. I mean, that means a high pick spent on a guy who's never taken a professional snap. So talk a little bit about your feelings on Elliot.

Well, I feel like if you want to get Elliot, this is a round where you're probably going to have to take him back into the first round, early second. But I think he's on a tier with, and again, this is PPR. So with Freeman, Elliot, Charles, Peterson, Gurley. And I would even kind of maybe smudge LaShaul McCoy to that mix, but he's the bottom of that tier. I think you can rearrange those guys any way you want. I'm comfortable with the upside, especially with a healthy robo running behind that offensive line. And I'm working under the impression. Now, I might be nuts about this, but so is Jared?

Jones, so it'll work out. But you don't spend to pick that highly on a running back if you're not going to use them for, let's say, I don't know, 75% of the snaps. The only guy I'm really worried about in that backfield, weirdly enough, his knee becomes reconstructed. It's Lance Dunbar because he's so good on third downs and such a good pass catcher, but there'd be no point of taking Elliot if you're just going to give, you know, Alfred Morris or McFadden any carries. So the way you were talking about that in a tier with Freeman and Charles.

Looking at your rankings here. So do you have David Johnson kind of as his own tier two?

Yeah, David Johnson to me is like mini-Lavion Bell. He's going to be 85% Levi-on-Bel with the potential to get up there. I just like the way that he is used out of the backfield. You know he's going to be in on third down. I guess there's a case you could make that Bruce Ariens is a crazy person and he might just play Chris Johnson. And that could be a thing. But I just see David Johnson's upside in an offense that's so good that you could be potentially looking at the number one player in fantasy. And just everything that I saw from him last year was...

Awesome. And I don't want to miss the boat on David Johnson. Again, these are PPR rankings. So someone like AP, Todd Gurley, they would move up in standard rankings. Johnson would be on the Johnson tier in standard rankings where like Freeman would fall down a little bit. But for PPR purposes, you're looking at Levi-on-Bel 2.0 in terms of what he can do statistically, not necessarily the same sort of runner.

Yeah, we definitely think he could be the number one running back by the end of the year. So speaking of the number one guy, that's clearly at the end of the year going to come from the quarterback position. And at the top of your rankings, you bring in some heat, you bring in some fire. We have luck, Andrew Luck, number one.

Followed by Russell Wilson and Drew Brees. So we've got no Cam and no Aaron Rogers in those top three spots. But I want to talk about luck because he's had that one big year of over 40 touchdowns. And hopefully that was going to be a trend. He was derailed by injury. But it's possible that, you know, considering in his other years, I don't believe he's thrown for more than 30 touchdowns, why are you so confident in Andrew Luck being that number one guy? I'm not. All right.

I should be perfectly honest with you. But when I look at the board, so you have luck, Wilson, Breeze, Newton, Rogers, Brady, Rothesberger. Those are my top seven. I think you could really interchange those guys however you want. It depends on how risk-adverse you are with Tom Brady, but I think you can fill in for four weeks, no problem playing the matchups, and then get a top three guy. And, you know, you probably draft him at quarterback eight, quarterback 10, depending on how you're...

league feels right now. But with luck, I almost equated to Bortals because I'm down on Bordals this year. I think there's massive regression coming, but I don't see Indy's defense being any better. And weirdly enough, Andrew Luck turns the ball over, getting the ball back in his hands a lot and getting his team down. So he always is throwing. Frank Gore is basically a non-factor out of the backfield. And I look at his weapons. I look at the defenses in that division, the schedule they have to play in.

I just feel like if there's one quarterback who's going to take a monumental leap, it's probably going to be Andrew Luck. So just because he's my number one, doesn't mean you have to draft him as the number one quarterback. He probably falls to like four or five because everyone's in on cam this year. But I just see what he does with his legs, what he can do around the goal line. I could see his touchdown expectancy on the ground going up if he is truly healthy, which all signs point to yes. I just feel like he has the most upside in the situation where you see someone like Rogers.

That offense is very efficient. The defense is improving a little bit, too. And that's almost the case against Bortles, where Jacksonville is better. He doesn't need to throw the ball so many times. Where with luck, that's really the only option they have if they want to score points. So this is a pure upside play. For me, the quarterback that I'm going to end up with the most shares of, I'm guessing, is Drew Brees. Yes. We agree with that quite a bit. As well as the Bortles regression, you know, the numbers last year, how many passing touchdowns to running touchdowns?

Bortle's high interception totals. It just doesn't seem sustainable. So we have them as a regression candidate as well. Let me ask you this, though. If luck comes back and provides top-tier fantasy value production-wise, who's the beneficiary in the passing game there? I mean, what are your thoughts on Moncrief? I know you have him ranked lower. Mike is a big Moncrief guy. I love Moncrief. I think he's a breakout candidate this year. But who's the beneficiary to you?

Weirdly enough, it's one of those offenses that the ball gets spread around a lot of it. I can see T.Y. Hilton still being the guy, I think people are undervaluing him as a very solid wide receiver, too, especially in standard leagues. But Dwayne Allen, for a touchdown candidate, if you're not going to spend a high pick on a tight end and you're playing week to week, or you're playing matchups, or you're just looking for someone to kind of luck into one of those Mercedes-Lewis seasons where they catch 10 to 12 touchdowns, I feel like Dwayne Allen can be that guy, especially now that there's no Kobe Fleener around.

So let's move on to a guy that me and you, we talked about this last year. I don't know if you recall. I don't remember anything. That does not shock me one bit. But Eric Decker was a guy that you loved, I loved, we pushed him hard, and it panned out in a huge way. Eric Decker was a major success for fantasy football.

But it looks like you're jumping off the cliff here on the Eric Decker-love. You've got him down at 35. Is that because of the quarterback situation? Or is that taking into account you think Fitzpatrick will be back and you just see a big regression for Eric Decker? No, these rankings are done as it stands right now. So right now, Gino Smith is his quarterback.

and if Gino Smith is going to be the quarterback. So why do you have him so high at 35? That's the question that needs to be asked. Because, yeah. I just want some clarity on the situation. So I guess that's me sort of hedging against myself right now. I think even with Gino, he could be okay, but more like low-end, wide receiver 3 okay. But if Fitzpatrick is there, I think he's probably at number 24, just one spot behind Jordan Matthews, one spot ahead of Steve Smith. And I'd bump Marshall all the way.

Probably just behind Jordy Nelson. Yeah, yeah. I think that quarterback situation makes a gigantic difference.

I do have one question for you because this is somebody I want to take the temperature of with every guest that we have right now. I read an article by Brad Evans this morning talking about Thomas Rawls and some of his fears about Rawls. Where do you stand? You know, they drafted a couple of guys in the draft. You know, you think if there was good news, it would be out there about his recovery. And so are you worried about Rawls in year two?

Absolutely. I haven't been number 19 right now, and that's assuming that he starts week one. I think there is a strong possibility that the more and more information we hear, the more and more negative it's going to be. But everyone's just willing to jump on CJ ProSight right now, but it might not even be him. Christine Michael's still there. And I don't want to live through another offseason of just Christine Michael nonsense. Neither do we.