Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Week 1 Review, Studs and Duds, MNF Preview, Fantasy News

Now you can talk about Sammy Watkins. Where was Sammy Watkins, sir, you pooped in your big boy pants. Sammy Watkins was in the Vante Davisville. He was swallowed up by Vante Davis. We have inside information. I don't know if you caught this in the interview with our good friend, now currently suspended. Marty was Bryant, Marty McBride. He said that Vante Davis was the best corner he played. That's true. That's true. And Sammy Watkins, I don't even know if he was, was he targeted?

I don't know if Sammy Watkins was targeted. I think he was. I think he was targeted at least a few times. So not a good week for Sammy Watkins. Some other guys that underperformed, I'm going to read them out, and then you guys just pick a guy to talk about. C.J. Anderson and the entire Denver offense. We got to talk about Anderson real quick because we didn't talk about he has a possible sprained toe, which could be a big deal for C.J. Anderson. It could be a big deal for Ronnie Hillman. Exactly. Calvin Johnson, Lamar Miller, Alfred Blue, Justin Forset, Frank.

gore a bunch of guys that underwhelmed in week one for their ownership is there anybody kind of the focus of why we do these sections is part of the analysis and the thought process behind it is

Is this a one-week anomalous type of performance, or is this a panic alarm type of thing? And we certainly don't want to overreact to week one, but is there anybody in this list, C.J., Calvin, Lamar, Blue, Fawcett, Gore, Watkins, that you're concerned about long-term, because that's the question for fantasy owners. And that's how you make a move. You react to long-term prognosis. I think just like the guys who had great week ones, I'm not going to overreact to any of these. What was...

concerning for me was Lamar Miller. And it wasn't him as a talent at all. He looked perfectly fine. The problem was the play calling. What happened? It was unbelievable. In Miami, it was just moronic what they were doing. His usage was just far too low. Hopefully they correct that going into next week. But it's just, it's coaching buffoonery. Jason, I was going to ask you about Lamar specifically because he's kind of been your guy. Yeah, I love him.

What did you see? What did you not see? And what do you think is going to happen with him? Because certainly underwhelming. What I saw was him not being used. What I loved in preseason week three especially and what really kind of pushed him over the edge for me was how they used him. It literally comes down to usage. I don't think he...

played poorly. I don't think he had the opportunity to play well. And that's always been a little bit of the concern with Lamar Miller. Isn't that exactly the par for the course in that situation? Right. And so you can be worried about it. But I think the fact that they had such a terribly hard time beating the Washington Redskins is going to make them look and say, we've got to change some stuff. So I'm still high on Lamar Miller in general going forward. I'm not going to overreact from this week. The one guy from this

You know, I look at this list and they all have some kind of reason and excuse. For instance, San Diego has a great pass defense from last year, and it looks like it carried over, but Calvin Johnson is a guy who, you know, there are some that worry we're getting towards the downward part of his career, and there was nothing but downward parts of his game this week. There was not much to see.

And so that would be one concern to look at going forward. But again, there's not a guy on this list I want to overreact to. The one guy who's not on this list that I want to overreact in anger, not in moving forward, is Greg Olson.

Whoa. I wasn't watching. He should be in this list. Yeah. I wasn't watching that game live. I will admit this. In our league where I ended up with Greg Olson and you ended up with Kelsey, I took him like two picks ahead because we're half point PPR and I wanted that. And I was not watching this game live at the time. And so I kept wondering, is Greg Olson injured? He's got one target for one catch for 11 yards and then the game kept moving on and that didn't change. Yeah.

I mean, it was just a disappearing act. 14 carries for Cam Newton, a very low-scoring game, a very plotting game. You underestimated the value of Jericho Kotri, my friend. You are correct. Honestly, that's what it comes down to with that offense, though, is you're going to probably have like one to two passing reception touchdowns a game. And so without the PPR value that Jason alluded to, you're in trouble. So I do want to rotate back to a very important focus here. And I watched a lot of this game.

You could chalk it up to two defenses playing very well. I think Denver's defense is great. I think they didn't want to do a lot to lose the game. But man alive, did that Denver offense look bad? And it was all underneath, and Peyton completed no passes of over 20 yards and took about five or six sacks. I mean, without protection, and that old man body, there's going to be a lot of trouble. Terrell Suggs went out, and it did not matter.

I mean, it didn't make their defense look any worse because the Broncos' offense did nothing. Yeah, but I am, I'm not red alarming Peyton Manning yet. It was just week one. And the same, I got lots of Justin Fawcett. Do I trade while his value is still high? Not at all. I think that... He actually pieced together an okay game by the end of it. The Denver has spectacular cornerbacks, spectacular. And they shut down the passing game, which means that the

that they're able to stuff the box against Justin Forset. And so what I will say is it could be a little bit tough for Justin Forset until Perryman gets in the lineup and can start spreading things like Tori Smith did last year. And we don't, we have no idea when Perryman's going to get in. But I'm absolutely not bailing on Forsett. So based on this, based on this game, you go out and trade for.

Brandon McManus. Based on this game, yes. Yeah, he's going to be putting up a lot of field. There was a point where it was just, I mean, pure special team scoring for the entirety of the, you know, the game. Is that how it ended? I think so. Did anyone score touchdown? I can't remember one. The final score of that game was 1913, so I think there was a defensive touchdown. Well, there were multiple defensive touchdowns. Two pick sixes and then the special teams touchdown.

Hey, Emmanuel Sanders looked pretty good. Yeah. We got to mention that because he was, you know, we haven't talked about him. He was out with the hamstring injury in preseason and kind of a quiet forgotten guy. But if the arm strength is being lost on Peyton, then a guy like Emmanuel Sanders is a great option. And D. Thomas is, this one's being downplayed, but he's getting an x-ray on his wrist. We don't have an update for this, so I'm not freaking out. Tomorrow. Yeah, but it's interesting.

that people are not talking about this. All right, I'm going to take a couple minutes now to, before we get to the mailbag, I want to just basically go through the games. Give me some bullet points that stood out to you. I'm going to go through them pretty quick. So we've talked a lot about the big standouts, but there were other players that made a mark, guys that you're either buying into or not buying into. You know, an example would be like Jordan Cameron led the Dolphins for receiving in that game. So let's start there. Let's start with the Dolphins Redskins. It was a game that I, I,

Sad, the Redskins might steal. They were up 10-0 and they couldn't get it done. But Dolphins Redskins, Pierre Garcon had a good game. Anything else stand out from that one? Alfred Morris looked like he was running great. I think he finished with 120-plus yards. Garcone is an interesting wide receiver with if Deshaun Jackson misses any time.

Packers Bears, James Jones made an appearance. Oh, James Jones. There is this, I got to tweet this morning. Do I drop Devante Adams for James Jones? No. Please, no. Devante Adams is going to be fine. I underestimated the chemistry between James Jones and in Roger's willingness to throw it up to him. I told these guys that morning that, you know, we've done the math, right? Rogers throws for 4,000 plus yards. It's got to go someplace. So James Jones had a big game, but he was targeted the least among the receivers. So this is a touchdown game.

Yes, and I'm not Adams' his touchdowns will come. All right, Jason, did you see anything else out of the Jets-Browns game that we should pay attention to? No. I think Chris Ivory looks... Decker and Marshall both scored. Yeah, yeah. Marshall looked good. You were telling me about a play that I really want to go see. Oh, Brandon Marshall, there was an interception and like a clear interception than Brandon Marshall just...

snatched it out of the defender's hands and the defendant went down like, what just happened? You can't do that. So it was almost a hosing for Brandon Marshall's fantasy value. All right, the Chiefs topped the Texans. This game was a blot that turned into a close one. Alex Smith had a big fantasy game. Do you buy into him during the year? Because he was somebody who is higher on my list. I don't know if it'll continue or not. Yeah, he's got the weapons to throw to. Still hasn't thrown a touchdown to a wide receiver.

Yeah, but I do like Alex Smith. I've got a lot of Alex Smith in my MFL tens. It's one of my teams. I've got Alex Smith and Marriota. Liking that for week one. But yeah, I like him going forward as a startable player. We've been talking about streaming options. He's going to be on your waiver. He's a great option for streaming. Yeah, he's always been a great streaming option in Kansas City. If he has a good matchup, then you throw him in. Macklin made a mark on that offense.

Yeah, big time. Even though he didn't score, he had a good, he had a pretty good game, and it stretches the field, it changes the underneath routes, Kelsey got open, Charles had a good game. I like the Chief's offense, and their defense is just monstrous, man. All right, we've got to talk about Mike's favorite player in the NFL, the winning quarterback for the St. Louis Rams, Nick Foles.

The Rams topped the Seahawks 3431. It looked like they were going to gift this game back to the Seahawks because it had looked over. But they pulled it out. And what's interesting about this game for me was Benny Cunningham was solid. He was solid for fantasy and the Rams were able to run. What that speaks more to me is Todd Gurley, once healthy, could be a...

monster, which we all know he could be because he was great in college, but the concern was, will the team be able to use him? And going up against the Seahawks, one of the best running defenses in the league, now they were minus Cam Chancellor. They might be looking to fixing that contract. They should $900,000 apart and he wasn't on the field. Yeah, that might be a $900,000 needle mover for them. But that speaks positively to me.

Jason. Jason, let's talk about the Cardinals Saints game. The game out here, Cardinals Top, the Saints, 3119. Talk about what you saw on both sides of the ball there. Mark Ingram had a good game. Mark Ingram looked great, and I loved the fact that he was used in the passing game. I had someone write in and ask me, do I start Mark Ingram or another guy? And the reason that I went with Ingram was because in preseason, they used him in the passing game. In college, Ingram...

was a very good pass catcher, and we just haven't seen that in the NFL. If that goes forward, then Ingram is someone that I really like. I also like C.J. Spiller when he returns. When he returns, because Kyrie Robinson had a lot of usage, and it looks like they are dominating the screen game. That might just be because that was a giant weakness for Arizona. And on the Arizona side, we talked a little bit about it, but the offensive line looked better than I thought they would given recent injuries.

and for running specifically. So Chris Johnson looks good. If you have to own one cardinal receiver for the rest of the year, is it John Brown? Yeah, it's got to be John Brown. It's really close. In standard, it would be John Brown for me. Yeah, standard I can see that. PPR is probably still Fitzgerald. He's going to.

Fitzgerald was going to get it done. Well, and if Fitzgerald caught that one pass when he was wide open, that's another 30, 40 yards. That would have been on his number. Keep in mind, when did Fitz come on? Fitz come on more towards the second half, right? You realize that Michael only played, yeah, Michael Floyd only played one snap in the second half.

So I think you started to see that. He played the first half. When Floyd was coming off an injury too. Right. Palmer, though, put up a big week for our foot clan members out there that started Palmer. So I was happy to see that. Last one I'm going to touch on before I get to some mailbag and I want to mention a few other things.