Fantasy Time Machine + Credit, Blame, and Brown Spots - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/21

Or how old? There are two ways. There are two ways you can hurt yourself. Oh, you almost walked into a compliment there. Be careful. That was dangerous. You know, I don't think we should be worried. So this is true about how I view it and tell me if this is wrong or foolhardy because or if it's just hypocritical. The way that I look at some of these little hamstring tweaks is agist.

When it's a younger guy, I feel like their ability to bounce back and be healthy and be fine is, it doesn't worry me at all. DeAndre Hopkins tweaked his hamstring. Tyreek Hill tweaked his hamstring. And I'm not worried. Whereas I am worried about AJ Green and T.Y. Hilton. Same exact problem. And I'm not treating them all the same. Do you think that is wise or foolish? I think it's the correct, the correct decision to make.

You got to be worried about a guy who's a little bit older. I know right now, if I tweak my hamstring, I'm out for months, months, years. Yeah, you might never get, you might never get back to a hundred. No, I think the age plays a big role. If Julio Jones went down with a hamstring right now, I'd be concerned, even though he's been on the field now for three, four years pretty consistently, it's still lingers. The concern lingers.

But I think teams are also being smarter. I think teams are just getting these guys, no preseason games, no reason to go wild with them, let them recover. Sammy Watkins hasn't practiced in several days. He's got a groin injury. Yeah, that's not good. My groin. And he is just always banged up and hurt and dealing with injuries. Come on, Sammy. Melvin Gordon had to be pulled from practice early yesterday. There is more to this Melvin Gordon talk that I want to bring up. He tweaked his ribs.

So they pulled him out. Doesn't know the severity. That's head coach Vic Fangio. Melvin Gordon, there was also some other beat reporters talking about Philip Lindsay and Melvin Gordon and, you know, at least the rhetoric out of the mouths of the Denver coaching staff is these guys both deserve to be looked at as the number one. Yeah, I think the quote was talking about how no one, we don't need to name a starter because they are both starters to our team, which.

Yikes. Yes, absolutely. And this is how I've been looking at this situation. And this, I guess I'm coming off a little Jason Tutti over here. But Melvin Gordon is a fine player. Philip Lindsay, though, back to back 1,000 yard rushing seasons. He is a good player. Just because you're able to get Melvin Gordon on a reasonable contract. I mean, it's Melvin Gordon made some money. You didn't have to.

really overpay the veteran. They're both going to be used on the field, which is, it's troubling for fantasy. I still believe Melvin Gordon is the far more likely guy to get the goal line carries. And he'll get all the third down. Philip Lindsay graded out terribly in past protection last year, and Gordon has experienced there. Right. But it actually concerns me.

It concerns me because I have a choice in my draft of going Melvin Gordon with a late third round pick, or I can go someplace like David Montgomery, who has more opportunities to himself, 275 plus opportunities in that offense. We haven't seen Gordon in Denver. It does concern me a little bit. Gordon does have a way to, you know, even if they're splitting time, like you said, if he's catching the ball and he's scoring, he'll deliver on his ADP.

Now he's banged up. Yeah, it's one of those true, like, coach speak moments where you have to decide, do you believe? Because I was not where Mike is right now. I was believing that the money they gave him and the fact that they, you know, had been trying, but unsuccessfully to have the running game that they wanted. And they go out and they sign Melvin Gordon to be the guy. And then Philip Lindsay will be relegated to a backup who is used, but, you know, not an equal.

opportunity here between, you know, these two guys. And this coach speaks as, no, it's, they're both going to be utilized. But do you believe the coach speaking? And that's the question. And I do. And when you combine that kind of talk at the same time that Melvin Gordon misses, you know, reps right now and is injured and Philip Lindsay is running with the ones, I think that helps seal that coach speak into place. This is a very popular thing to do, though, as a head coach.

Sure. Is not separate somebody, not tell Philip Lindsay he's a two, not tell Michael Gallup, he's a two. Don't go telling Kevin Coleman he's a two. This is, why label? We don't need labels. That's kind of a common thing. And I would say, because why would you demotivate Lindsay? I mean, it doesn't do you any favors. Yeah, the fact, though, that Philip Lindsay is, in fact, very good at football. And, like, he was good enough that he came in off the street, not drafted, and.

beat out a third round pick. He beat out Royce Freeman, who, you know, Division I, Pack 12, one of the all-time leading rushers in college football, drafted to be their guy. Phil Blinsey was, he outplayed him, and he took the job. So to say, to me, to think that Melvin Gordon is just going to come in and get 65% of the work, I don't, that's far too high for me.

Philip Lindsay was the number 19 overall fantasy running back last year. Jared Stiddle, battling discomfort in his leg. So he wasn't at practice today at his Patriots quarterback that we don't consider to be real competition for Cam Newton's job. He's had the interception problems as well if you've been following the beat reporters. I'm not sure why they are taking so long up in New England. I mean, there's.

They have access to information that we don't. But to me, it's if Cam Newton's going to be the guy and lead your offense, you better just tell him he's the starting quarterback and start getting to work of your starting quarterback is getting all the first team work. Is the fact they're not doing that indicative of more of a competition than we think? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's at least a little bit more of a competition. I have no doubt that Cam Newton is going to win out. Do you guys have...

Any concern with the length that this quarterback competition is going that maybe Jared Stidham does win the job? I would be so blown away if Jared Stidham wins the job. I can't even imagine that outside of Cam going down to a new injury. Well, I'll say this. If Jared Stidham's a better quarterback will win the job, unlike other teams that may feel a loyalty to...

Cam Newton's name and pedigree. Sure. Right. New England has more, they're going to put the better player out on the field. I agree with that. I think you and I just said the same thing, though. Yeah, you could be right, but we don't know. Yeah. We don't know with Cam right now. But we all agree that we're statting Cam to be the starter. Where are we with Justin Jefferson? Right now in camp, he seems to be quote, the clear number three option. You have B.C. Johnson. You've got.

Tajay Sharp added to the offense. We're all over the place with the Minnesota Vikings rookie wide receiver because the athletic, who they were the ones that had the report that said, it's between Jefferson and B.C. Then there was another athletic report, at least reported by Roder World saying he's running with the second team offense. So I don't know where to go with Justin Jefferson. If I'm taking a draft chance on a rookie wide receiver for redraft,

It's not going to be Justin Jefferson. Yeah, that's where I'm at. Right off the bat when camp started, he was running with the twos. He's still been with the twos. That's not to be unexpected in a shortened season. He's still a rookie coming in. But when you combine that with them talking about, oh, we're trying to, maybe we're seeing if Irv Smith can line up outside. Like, you know, they're looking for a solution. They're not assuming it's Justin Jefferson. And that leads me to believe.

Look, if Justice Jefferson has a phenomenal career and is a great fantasy option, it's not going to be in the first half of his rookie season. It's just not happening. So he's pretty much off my redraft boards. Yeah, the other side of the coin is he's competing with Taj Sharp and Bezzi Johnson to get opportunities. So cream rises. Sure. Well, I mean, AJ Brown was competing with Taj Sharp and it took him half a season. Oh, I don't disagree that it'll take time, but I believe it will happen. Sure.

Washington football team coach Ron Rivera announced yesterday. He's been diagnosed with a form of lymph node cancer, very treatable and curable, going to stay the head coach, going to stay coaching. The current plan is Rivera will keep his job. Washington has reported there is a backup option in place. Sure Rivera need to take some time off. But get after it, Ron. Yeah, yeah. Get healthy. Go after that championship. And listen, Fook, Glenn, if you.

are going after your championship. We want to make sure you know where to get all of your glorious, your hardware that you can shove in people's faces. And I don't mean that. That sounds violent. I don't mean that literally. Like those championship rings, if you put that on and you shove that in someone's face, you go to jail because these things are like brass knuckles. They're beautiful and they're huge. You got to stop short of the punch.

But you got to make sure that you're putting in their face. I have no idea where you're going on this one. He's on a ride, man. Where we're going, we don't need roads. Listen. There ain't no road. If you're a champ, if you're going to be a champ. If you've got a league, there will be a champ. Trophies, rings, belts. Trophies, rings, belts. Fantasy champs is where you get your hardware. And here's the thing. My favorite personal, my, the thing I like the best.

Goodness, is the championship ring. That's my favorite. All right. Yeah, we're back. If I was to buy something, it would be a championship ring. Those are 60 bucks. Right now, they're doing a deal where if you buy a trophy or a belt, you get a free championship ring. So why not to have both? It's a great deal. You use the code free ring at checkout, and you receive a $60 ring for free with the purchase of a trophy or a belt. Go to fantasy champs.com.

I get mine for free when Jason's putting it up in my face. Yeah. I just take it off his finger. That's how I get mine. I should really wear all of mine for the shows. Yeah, that'd be great. John Gruden style? Yeah. Hey, man. Marty, you've got to come back with me. Where? Back to the future. Oh, it's some wind times. I forgot. It's been a year since I've heard that drop. It's so good. As Jason was eloquently completing.

the read for fantasy champs. I mean, that was the best read of all time. We were getting to the point of this segment, and in my head I went, holy crap, did I forget to do a drop for this segment? What is our transition going to be? And guess what I made one. You crushed it. I went to the future or went to the past. Bill and Ted style. Brought it back. I said, I got to remember to make a drop. And then it just appeared. Well, this was a live show last year on our Fantasy for the People tour.

and we're bringing it back for 2020, and we're on the hunt. We want to find the 2020 version of a few players. Last year, Chris Godwin broke out. He was a wide receiver outside the first three rounds. He was a wide receiver perceived as the number two on his team behind Mike Evans, a wide receiver that ended up with loads of targets last year and has that contested catchability.

And he also had a quarterback in James Winston that was willing to go full, I don't care on the passing attempts. Yes. So James was what, 30 for 30? Yeah, James Winston. I believe that's correct. 5,100 passing yards. So when we look towards 2020, who is this year's Chris Godwin for you?

For me, I think there's a pretty obvious archetype out there. It's another wide receiver who was drafted high, who looked so many flashes of brilliance in his first couple of years but had not truly broken out. And now it's coming into year three with all the stars aligned. That is, you know, the Chris Gardwyn archetype for me is Calvin Ridley this season. Calvin Ridley.

If you look back at last year, his second year, the first part of that season, he wasn't. His snap counts were in the 50, 60%. There was a change that happened over the course of that season where he got more involved. And all of a sudden, you actually saw Ridley have a lot of fantasy success. Towards the end of the year, he's 80%, 89%, 80, 85, 94%. He became the guy.

They got rid of Muhammad Sunu that opened things up for him. During that stretch, I don't know if you realize this from weeks five through the rest of his season because he didn't play after week 15 with an abdominal injury. He was the wide receiver 11. He was already a wide receiver 1. And you also have the other side of the field, right? Which is Chris Godwin had Mike Evans.