Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - Valentine's Day Picks, Free Agency Preview

News and notes from Around the League. Still had the volume down from our Valentine's Day. That's what you get for your volume tricks. Yeah, yeah. All right. Carson Palmer says he's coming back. That's good. I think it's good. I think it's good for Larry Fitzgerald. I think it's good for David Johnson. There can be no question that it is good for the 2017 Cardinals. Long term, who knows, you know, obviously this will probably be the last year of both of those men.

But I think that... On the Cardinals. There's... I think on any NFL team. Right. Yeah. But yes. Did you see the news on Steve Kime? What? And Kime did come out and confirm. He said, we have to get a franchise quarterback. I will be very surprised if they don't take one in the first two rounds. If the Cardinals don't draft a quarterback. Yeah. Yeah, they have to look to the future there. It means a lot for the rest of that franchise. And obviously, in not wasting David Johnson's prime years...

as the running back because we don't want to see him stuck in a girly-like situation like last year. Many running backs face that. The Giants have released Rashad Jennings and Victor Cruz. What do you think the impact is of the Jennings release to the future of Paul Perkins? Do they draft somebody? Do they lean on Perkins as a bell cow? Where is Perkins in your dynasty view? Where is he in your redraft view? I want to know.

because I'm asking for a friend. I don't think they go after, I mean, they'll probably bring in another running back just for depth. You lose a running back, you bring one in. But I don't think they're going to spend a high capital on trying to find a stud running back. I don't anticipate that they're going to bring in, you know, Latavius Murray. They have plenty of backs there. Shane Vereen is expected to be back. You've got Paul Perkins. You have depth there. 4.1 of carry.

In his rookie year. And he showed flashes. I like Paul Perkins. I expect him to have the opportunity. My big issue is I don't think that the New York Giants are a great team at running the ball. I don't think that's their forte and that's their system. So I think you're still going to be limited in the running back for that offense. But we saw the end of 2015, Rashad Jennings was very productive for fantasy football. And so if Paul Perkins could take that roll over, younger, fresher,

Maybe he's valuable in 2017. I think Shane Vareen is, you mentioned it, but he will be the Unforgotten man. Come draft season. Unforgotten? So everyone's going to remember him. Man, it's tough on the streets right now for me, fellas. He will be the forgotten man when it comes to drafting Paul Perkins. I like Paul Perkins. He was a guy I liked coming into the draft last year, but they have Vareen there for very specific reason. And that is catching the ball. And we've seen that.

running backs that if you're not the third down guy, you can lose a lot of value, not that there's a ton of workhorse running backs anymore. But Paul Perkins will, I think he's going to be, he'll rise rapidly. It's very interesting because Perkins last year, the utilization of Perkins began as a past kicking running back. Because Shane Marine was out. As a screen running back. So he did it. He had 24 targets, 15 catches.

So I, it'll be, at least he can do it on first and second down if they need it. Let's move on here. Victor Cruz was released. They saved some money. One NFL scout reported they think Victor Cruz is probably done. I tend to agree. Victor Cruz needs to call up Jimmy Graham and say, how did you, how did you do it, man? Yeah, I mean, Cruz, Cruz had been through. He was already on the downtrend. Yeah, he's on the downtrend. I mean, could he come and have an Anquan Bolden type impact somewhere? No.

Probably not. The answer is he's not, he's a different player than Antoine. Let's see. What else do we want to bring up here in the news? Jay Gruden is handling play calling duties in 2017 for Washington with Sean McVeigh, the aforementioned, leaving to become the Rams head coach.

Any impact of Gruden handling these duties? I think he'll be fine. Yeah, I don't think there's a huge negative. If anything, I know that he had expressed concern that maybe they were passing the ball a little bit too much. No, no, Jay. This could be. I disagree. This could be good news for Rob Kelly, assuming that that is the starter next year and they don't go out and find someone. But Jay Gruden has done it in the past.

So you're fine. I mean, you've got a very experienced head coach who clearly knows the team knows the offense and is an offensive mind. I don't worry at all, as opposed to, say, Kyle Shanahan, who is a first time head coach without an offensive coordinator. I don't worry as much about Jake Rudin. This last bit is really important for Jason. The Seahawks have signed Blair Wall. Kicker news. Kicker news for Jason. Ooh. Houska is worried. Sounds like trouble for Houska. Oh, no. Do you think that the Seahawks?

signed Blair Walsh because he was already helping the Seahawks win games before he was a Seahawk. Maybe this was more of a... Like a bonus. We remember what you did, Blair. Come on in here. Thanks. We're not going to keep you on the roster, but we're going to give you a signing bonus. Appreciate it. Pat you on the butt, good game. Have a good one. Oh, I kind of forgot about that connection. It's the long con. There was money under the table. All right. No, this is right over the table. This is in your face. It is now.

Outside the uprights is what you call it. That's an outside the upright move. You know, it's got a spit take from Jason. All right. You know, I noticed these offseason, preseason shows, they're a little looser. Yeah, we get a loosey-goosey. Have a little loose. We're going to jump into the free agent preview. Before we do that, we want to thank pristine auction.com. Sponsor of today's show, keeping this show going. You know, we love pristine auction. I...

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No doubt. So you guys want to get into the free agent preview? I do. Let's do it. All right. Well, let's start with this. It doesn't have to be complex and in depth here. But let's give the lay of the land here because now we are through the regular season. The Super Bowl's over. We're entering the time of year where free agency and the NFL draft and all of these things come to fruition. So let's explain the difference between because we're going to walk through the free agents available. Sure.

But let's explain the difference between an unrestricted free agent and a restricted free agent. Well, a restricted free agent, that means that the team, just to make it easy to consume, is the team will be able to re-sign that player even if they get an offer from another team. Yeah. That's the easiest way. They have a right of first refusal. That's a good way to think of it. There you go. So what happens is they can tender a restricted free agent. An example of this.

plain and simple last year was C.J. Anderson. C.J. Anderson last year was a restricted free agent. They tendered him at a second round value. Is that correct? No, no. They screwed up with Anderson. Yeah. They gave Anderson a garbage tender. And so he was able to go out and then Miami offered him a lot of money. That's right. They offered him a ton of money. If they had just offered him that second round tender, people might have stayed away. Right. Because what happens is if a team signs a player.

that is a restrictive free agent and the team chooses not to match. Their own team chooses not to match. That team will receive a pick as compensation and that is corollary to the tender to the tender. Correct. So if C.G. Anderson had been tendered at a second round value and the dolphins inside them, they would have received a second round draft pick. So that's what I think I made it more complicated there. Right after I said. I tried to keep it easy. Here's the thing. Unrestricted, there ain't no drama. Right. You can just sign with another team. Where are you going?

And the reality is, we'll get into the wide receivers. You know, when you're an unrestricted free agent, if you haven't negotiated a contract extension, a lot of the times it's really hard to keep those guys. Yes. Because somebody's going out there to make a splash, to make an impact, their limited names, and a lot of the times they're just gone. So let's start at the quarterback position. What teams do you see as the most quarterback needy teams for the available free agents? The neediest of teams is, of course, the Cleveland Browns.

They are hard cemented into this team. Jason's shaking his head. I don't think they're the neediest team. I, but that's fine. They certainly have no quarterback. They're among, among the neediest teams. Cody Castler, maybe, maybe they think he's the future. The Chicago Bears, all reports have them moving on from Jay Cutler. And who are they going to do? They had a rotation of guys. Hoyer was there. Barkley filled in for a little bit.

The Houston Texans, I think, have some extreme buyer's remorse with Brock Osweiler. I don't know if they'll be able to make a move, but they'll certainly be looking. The Buffalo Bills are, looks like they might let Tyrod go. The New York Jets, the Broncos and San Francisco are the, to me, those are the top teams that need a quarterback. Yeah, those are the big teams that are on the hunt, available free agent-wise. Kirk Cousins is a free agent.

technically technically is a free we don't expect kirk cousins to go anywhere if they can't sign a contract with kirk cousins i believe they will do the second year in a row franchise uh which he has said it he's totally fine with that go ahead pay me top uh quarterback money and then let me sign another contract next year is it tenable for them to do that and then next year they'd have to have a long term deal in place otherwise he's going to get paid i believe

The third year of a franchise is like number one money. Can you even do that? I thought you could only do it twice. Well, it is tenable for them to do it this year. The Washington Redskins are expected to have the sixth highest salary cap available so they can spend that money on a one-year deal to make sure he's their guy. I do agree it's probably better for them long term to just get a deal done. He's a good enough quarterback. He already proved that this year and last year.

you should sign up to something long term. Regardless, Kirk has a huge name that many teams would go after in the NFL, but he's not going to be leaving the Redskins. So that's bad for great storylines. Yeah, so the guys who are really available in, in my opinion, Tony Romo will be traded or released. The hotness, Jimmy Garoppolo, all signs point to the Patriots trading him. And then you have kind of the unforgotten Mike Glennon.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers who played okay. I don't know that we saw enough to go out and say, okay, Mike Lennon is a franchise quarterback. He's special Tampa Bay didn't think he was when they had the option to draft James Winston number one. But he has been there and Mike Lennon will be available. I think he will get that mid-level type starter money. Someone's going to pick him up. And then, of course, Brian Hoyer and Gino Smith.

Sorry, Gino. And Ryan Fitzpatrick, who's probably done. I mean, when you look at Brian Hoyer, he's only 31 years old. And he's an experienced quarterback. And he was playing very well for Chicago during that period of time. Very few turnovers, very efficient. I mean, it's comical because you look at Houston and where they're at. And what they could have done with that kind of a consistent quarterback behind center. What they did with that. I know.

He had an abysmal playoff game. I totally get it. But he was pretty good on the season. It's ironic because when I shook my head that I don't think the Cleveland Browns are the most quarterback needy team, that's because they, a quarterback's not going to help their team. I mean, you know, they need a million pieces. I feel like the most quarterback needy team.

is the Houston Texans. They need a legit quarterback, and Brian Hoyer was there. To me, it's the Broncos. The thing about Houston is that they're not in the position to have buyer's remorse twice. They're not going to go out there and sign a free agent quarterback or trade for somebody they have to sign to a long-term deal with Brock. You know, they'll draft a quarterback, in my opinion. I believe Houston will make it a priority to draft a quarterback, put themselves in a position to where next year if they want to go the free agent route.