Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - The "My Guys" Episode, Fantasy Favorites, Teddy

This has been my guy. T.J. Yeldon, he missed three games last year, still ended up the RB24. And I've seen him on people's list of players to avoid. And so I want to tell you why I don't think you should avoid him. One reason, he's going two rounds later than Chris Ivory. He's going the eighth pick of the eighth round where Ivory's going the eighth pick of the sixth round. My eyeballs, this off season in the preseason camp, Yeldon looks great to me.

Yeldon came out and was in above, to me, an above average rookie running back, took the most snaps of any of the rookie running backs. And I see them on these avoid lists. But what I want people to realize is, okay, let's say Ivory comes in there and take some carries. Carries were not the only thing that drove Yeldon last year. He only had four games in the entire season where he had more than 14 carries. All the rest of his games, he was below that mark. He can catch the ball. He didn't depend on touchdowns to get that RB24 ranking. He only had three.

And him being almost a ninth rounder is insane to me. To me, on tape, he's a better player than Ivory. They're very complimentary, though. They're perfect compliments to one another. And if Ivory takes a little bit away from Yeldin, Yelden didn't need the goal line carries. He will get the ball in the passing game. And I think he's basically an RB2. I'm projecting him to be around that range. But you get that. You can go, you talk about Fleener in the eighth round. You can go get Yeldin, a guy that might end up an RB2 near the ninth round.

I think the way we talk about Gio or Woodhead or those other guys, I don't understand why we wouldn't be talking that way about Yeldon, a guy who can take the ball out of the backfield. He, you know, catch passes, score. I really, really like T.J. Yeldon. The Woodhead and Charles Sims comparisons are fantastic. Because when I think about drafting Woodhead or Charles Sims, I get excited. I like them in PPR leagues. I know what they can do. I know that they have upside.

And the difference, and it's good that you bring this up, is because the difference is because T.J. Yeldon is going from a position to what perceives to be a worse spot this year. You know, so he just feels like he's a guy on the downward trend. But if this was his first year, if he was drafted as a rookie and he comes into the role he's got right now sharing the ball with Chris Ivory in that pass-catching role.

Behind an injury riddled Chris Ivory. I mean, that's great upside. And I think we would say Ivory's not on the ascension of his career. He may be reliable for them. But when Yeldon played, here's the simplest thing. When he played last year, 11th bust running back. When he played. It's number 11. So does he drop to the late teens because of ivory? That's like worst case scenario to me, and you still get an RB2. So Yeldon's my guy. I'm going to give you my second. Sure. We're going to roll back the other direction. Please do. I need more Andy.

Yeah, well. It's Brandon Marshall. Love it. It's Brandon Marshall. And this again, to me, him being behind Mike Evans is one of the stupidest things that I can imagine. Confounding. It's confounding to me. Being behind Des is somewhat confounding to me because of all the variables that exist for Des, not just Romo. Coming off the injury, the volume difference between Des and Marshall last, you know, is going to be tremendous to me.

I think it might be super that he's behind Hopkins. I mean, we've talked about Hopkins at length, but all Marshall did was go out and have over 1,500 yards and 14 touchdowns. To me, he's in better shape, if not the same shape. But Andy, go ahead. But he's old. Yeah. That's all I've got. Yeah. I know he's done it forever, and he's always been good. Right. But he's old. Yeah. This old guy got the number three, was the number three wider receiver last year.

He had only four games without a touchdown. He's one of the best at yards after the catch. He's a red zone guy. He doesn't, you know, he's got the size. He's a go-to receiver. So all I have to say about that is, come on now. Come on now. Come on now. It's not a, there's no crazy argument here. I don't have to. He proved it. I don't have to prove it. Those great receivers, those really great receivers are those receivers who between the 20s are the go-to guy. And then inside the 20s are also the go-to guy. Yeah. And that's Brandon Marshall.

Yeah, and so Marshall, to me, love the value, going in the six pick of the second round, and you could end up with the top three wide receiver. Well, if we're going to go with some top guys here, then I'm going to plant my flag on a guy I absolutely love. I have, I have him on so many of my rosters. I was. Oh, Nile Davis. I know Nile Davis when I hear it. He's so good.

Last night in our listener league draft, I was at the eighth spot. I hate the eighth spot this year, if you're in a good draft, if you're in a bad draft and people fall to you. And I just wanted Lamar, and Lamar went seventh. So, Corey, if you're listening, you suck. But Lamar Miller, Lamar Miller is clearly one of my guys this year. I've talked about him at length. I believe that he represents the best combination at running back this year for safety.

and upside. When you look at who's got an extremely safe floor, the Texans over the last two years have run the ball more than every single team in the league except for Seattle.

who had Marshawn Lynch, and now, you know, Seattle's, we don't know what's going on with their running back situation. We know what's going on with the Houston Texans running back. It's Lamar Miller. How many workhorse guys who are the first, second, and third down back who catch the ball and are going to get the ball a ton? Are there in the league? Honest question. How many? Very few. Adrian Peterson doesn't catch the ball. Todd Gurley's not involved catching the ball. Say Levy on Bell? Levy on Bell.

Maybe Dave. I'm projecting David Johnson there. Sure. I mean, the point is this is a guy who is going to be in on first and second and third, catch the ball, run the ball. He's going to be the goal line back. He's going to be the third down back. He's going to be the first down back. I love it. Fifth down. The fifth down back. You don't right. You're darn right. But.

Here's the deal is that in his games where he's had more than 15 touches in a game, he has shown over the years that he is a top five running back on average in those weeks. So I feel like his floor is great. If he disappoints and he's not a top five running back, I think he'll be the 10th running back or maybe the 12th running back. And so maybe I'll be disappointed taking him at the number 7 spot. But I'm not going to lose my league because of Lamar Miller barring catastrophic injury. All right. But the upside.

is through the roof. If he finished as the number one, you're not going to see me say, I can't believe it. Was that Gandalf? Yes. Mike, it's your turn. Look, I guess I'll just add this. Lamar Miller sounds a lot like the brand of Marshall, the running back. The perfect combination of upside and floor. I mean, I'm all aboard with you with Lamar Miller. He's very high on my board. All right, Mike, you want to get to your stupid pick? I mean, oh, wait.

Mike, I respect you and your picks are great. That's pretty quiet for your T.J. Eldon banter over there. Very respectful. You could have introduced it poorly, though. So I'm going with, look, I've been beating this drum all off season. Ryan Matthews running back from the Philadelphia Eagles. I still believe in him because he's a fantastic running back. He's been over a thousand yards rushing twice in his career. The problem has always been health. Look.

Can I guarantee he's going to be healthy? No, I can't. But this is what I can tell you. Last year, he was averaging 2.4 yards before contact. And with 106 carries, that's third among the qualified running backs. The anti- Carlos Hyde. This is DeMarco Murray. I was going to say the anti-Demarco Murray, who could do nothing. DeMarco Murray rushed for 3.6 yards per carry on 193 attempts. Ryan Matthews on the exact same team, 106 attempts, 5.1.

Because Ryan Matthews has juice left to go laterally, to go through the pile, to catch the ball. He's still young. He's still in his running back prime, and he is the guy. Look, he picked up a first down on almost 30% of his runs. That's higher than David Johnson. Mark Ingram.

Carlos Williams. Look, he was fantastic last year. He just happened to be stuck behind an albatross of a running back contract. And DeMarco Murray, they had to give him the ball. Chip, you know how Chip Kelly is. He had, he assigned his name to DeMarco Murray. He had to run that out to the end. And Ryan Matthews paid the price. Now he gets to be the featured guy for Doug Peterson. I know that, look, Darren Sproles is going to be involved.

That's great. That helps their offense. Darren Sproles is going to be involved. He'll be on the field the exact same time that Ryan Matthews is. Ryan Matthews can catch the ball. We've seen numbers of seasons back in San Diego where Philip Rivers was targeting him as one of the top running backs in the league. He's a value pick to me going in the middle of the fifth round. I think that his upside is a low end running back one. If he doesn't get hurt, even with the bad offense.

it's going to run through Ryan Matthews. What else are they going to do? Yeah, they're wider. So I joke about Ryan Matthews. Here's the deal. If he gets the volume, I'm going to be wrong. So that'll make you right. Look, it's health. The question to me on Ryan Matthews is health. And that's the question for a lot of running back. One of the things I like about the fact that the concern is health is that he is for all intents and purposes playing in a contract year. He.

because they wanted to trade him. They talked about cutting him because his contract is monstrously large. And so if he doesn't play well this year, he's not going to get paid next year. And so while this isn't necessarily a contract year, everything that you say, you know, makes a contract year is in play for Ryan Matthews. He has to know that. And here's the last thing I'll say. Kenyon Barner and Sproles have looked great. Barner, 195 pounds.

Darren Sproles, 190 pounds. These are not guys who can carry the load as a standard prototypical running back. The only guy on that roster right now is Ryan Matthews because I'm throwing Smallwood into the dumpster. Sorry, Wendell Smallwood. I thought Smallwood looked okay, but I don't think he'll be involved. So I like it. All right, Jason, give me your third, my guy. Well, this is my...

Both favorite and least favorite. If you've been cleared to give that. Have you been cleared to give this? I have been cleared to do non-football activity. Okay. So I can do this. Non-contact. Now, have you been cleared for non-football activity? It's been proven that non-contact is very dangerous. It can be. Yesterday, I in non-contact, I took out a lot of guys with my words. This my guy is a guy that I really considered. I mean, I thought about it all yesterday, all today. Do I want to have him be my guy? Because the truth is.

This is my guy. Like, I love him. I look for him in every draft. I literally traded in our dynasty league to go and get him because I have extreme belief in him. I am very, very scared by the concussions. And I am talking about smoky John Brown. John Brown for the Arizona Cardinals, I think, is another great value player.

Here's the deal. Last year, people go, well, which cardinal do you want? And sometimes the joke is, well, you want whoever goes third. Thankfully, that joke is correct because John Brown is going third. But if John Brown was going first, you'd want John Brown, in my opinion. Here's why. Last year, keep in mind, that was only his sophomore year, his second year in the league. John Brown was the wide receiver, 21. He was a wide receiver too. He's being drafted as the 33rd wide receiver.

this year what why oh i'll tell you why because there's a wrong narrative that says that john brown got off to a great start when michael floyd wasn't playing and was injured and wasn't you know he even though michael floyd was in those games i i will completely grant you that

that he was not at full health, full strength. But let's just take the final weeks. From week 12 on, that's when Michael Floyd was back and healthy. From week 12 to week 17 of the three Arizona Cardinals, guess which one was the best in fantasy points per game? John Smokey Brown. And let me throw out another thing here that I just find super interesting. So I think he's safe. That's what I think. But let me talk upside now. Do it. A wide receiver. Let's call him Mr. Brown.

Did not go in the first round, did not go in the second round, but to a Bruce Ariens-led offense, he was drafted late. And he was really good. In his second year, in his second year in the league, he got 69 receptions for 1,108 yards and two touchdowns. I am not talking about John Brown. I'm talking about Antonio Brown, who is, by the way, 5'8.