The “My Guys” Episode + Players to Forgive: LIVE in LA

Chris Carson is the guy, and he's super undervalue. He also has the name Carson in his name, which has been important for my my guy. I can't wait for Jimmy. Oh, now Jason gets in. That took me way too long to get an old presidential joke. All right. Like your old president jokes. I'm going to jump in. Yeah, let's hear it, Mike. This is my running back. Much like, no, Mike. You mean my guy, Marlon Mc?

No, much like Jason's love for Carrion Johnson, my love for this player has been on full display over the whole offseason. I want to talk about the running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers. James Connor. Here's the deal. This feels a whole lot like an intervention tonight. Here's the thing. I love you picking this, Mike, because this is a your guy. Like Andy does not believe, but Mike has been telling the world.

I love his draft price. In Mike's takes, you know, yeah. I'm so happy that you chose him. So here's the deal. Mike Tomlin still there. That means Mike Tomlin loves using one running back. Last year, Connor saw 20.8 touches per game. That's the fourth highest at the running back position. He is a dual threat back. He averaged 113 yards per game, fifth most at the position. Now, let's run through some,

Some things that make up a great running back. Big plays, 20 plus yards. He did it nine times. That's just behind Zeke, Mixon, and Gurley. Is he elusive? Well, he broke 24 tackles. That's just behind Alvin Camara. His work in the passing game, 9.9 yards after the catch, that's third. That's more than Melvin Gordon. That's more than Kareem Hunt. That's more than your boy, Tarek Cohen, the passing game specialist. Is he trusted around the goal line?

15 carries inside the five, only fewer than Todd Gurley and Saquan Barkley. He averaged over 19 points a game, only one and a half points fewer per game than Alvin Camara, who is considered one of the top four. People will take Alvin Camara as the first pick, and James Connor was one and a half points fewer per game behind him. The thing you can say,

The only argument to me is Pittsburgh offense without Antonio Brown. That's a completely fair concern. But we have seen Big Ben succeed without Antonio Brown. He had a year with over 4,300 yards when that was Heinz Ward and San Antonio Holmes. And coming up behind Antonio Brown to fill that hole is Juju Smith Schuster, who I believe is a true number one.

is number 10 in receiving yards of all time across his first two years to start his NFL career. So I believe that Juju can fill Antonio Brown's shoes, and that means that James Connor will be a stud. And he is an incredible value at the back of the first round. Just so people understand, I have him at 10.

Jason has him at 12, but you have him at 6 because you're saying the gap between him and some of these other guys is not as big as people believe. That is correct. Even with A. B. Leave. Yes. That is correct. His own quotes from a day ago, Connor was talking about how he wants to keep pace with what Lev Bell said specifically in the passing game. And while I've got him at 12, it's because of worry about passing game work. If he gets the passing game work that Lev Bell did, then he should be a top five back. I just love that you went with him because

I'm all in, baby. You're telling people out there have confidence to draft this player who's really dicey. Like, when I'm on the board, I'm not always confident taking James Connor. But you know who I am? You know who I am confident. You know who I am confident taking it every time. I'm going to tell you this. Carry on. Carry on. No. No, no, no. I love this. Smary on Schmanson. I am very happy. Darnel. Darnel. Darnel Anderson. No. Uh.

Respect the man. Darnel Anderson is a legend. Him and Bill Braskey. Bill Brass. Don't look up his stats. All right. No, the second my guy for me, I'm very, very happy to put him on my board. It is Robert Woods. Wide receiver won for the St. Louis Rams. Robert Woods. Wait, the St. Louis Rams? Jason, we're in L.A.

Jason. That's really on brand. That is on brand. You're welcome, L.A. I brought you something special. Put him in a body bag. Oh, my goodness. That was ridiculous. All right. You know what's funny? What's funny is when I picked Robert Woods, I did not even, that had nothing to do. Oh, yeah. Well, no, because this has been on my board forever. I didn't realize we were going to be in L.A. And then I come here. And Pander Bear doesn't even get Los Angeles.

So look, Robert Woods is extremely disrespected. The great state of Missouri. He is. He's super disrespected. Yeah, by you. Can't even get his team right. That's not disrespecting the man. That's disrespecting the Rams. All right. So look, here's why he's been disrespected the last several years. It's because he's getting the old Doug Baldwin treatment.

Right, where we know what Robert Woods is. He was in the league for four years. He never finished higher than wide receiver 42. That's the whiny voices of public opinion. Yeah, exactly. He must be a journeyman. I don't want him on my fantasy. He doesn't even matter. He plays up in St. Louis. Except for here's the thing. Here's the thing with Robert Woods. Robert Woods is very good.

Years ago when he was on the bills catching passes from Tyrod Taylor and E.J. Manuel, yeah, he didn't have great fantasy seasons. But Andy and I, when we were watching games and analyzing, we would always say, would we not? Years ago when he was not a fantasy relevant player, he's just really good. He's a solid wide receiver. If you look in the ultimate draft kit, as you should, Matt Harmon's reception perception, he talks about how many routes...

that Robert Woods is so above average. And here's the crazy great part about playing for Sean McVay. The routes that he's great at.

Go figure are the exact routes that he runs more than average. Like his chart of routes run and his success route is identical if you put them over each other because Sean McVeigh goes, I'm going to use my players at what they're best at. I think the case has been made that he's really good by him last year. When he finished as the wide receiver 10? Yeah. So here's what happened.

He was undrafted two years ago, goes to the Rams. People are like, oh, they overpaid. They clearly underpaid for Robert Woods. He finishes as the wide receiver. They just gave him a raise, by the way. Yes, they did. For no reason, which made Zeke really upset. Right. Well, it's not for no reason. It's because they're like, hey, they're like, you're really good. You deserve more money. Look, he went undrafted. He finishes as the wide receiver 32.

in 2017, which is very respectable. He's on a great office. It finishes well. So where does he get draft the next year? Last year. Wide receiver, in the ninth round. Where does he finish? Wide receiver 10. You seem personally hurt by that. Well, look, I love, like, year after year after year with Frank Gore when he hit 30 years old. Every year, people didn't want him. Every year, he's like the unsexy pick. And every year... You're getting up there, so it's probably very emotional for you. It's super personal.

Oh, yeah. They did not like that instead. They love me. Uncalled for. Don't make jokes. He finished as the wide receiver 10 last year for one of the best offices in the league. So where's he going, drafted this year, back of the fourth, near wide receiver 20. What are you doing, America and the world? And Canada. And St. Louis. And St. Louis. Oh, no, St. Louis is drafted him one overall. Look.

He's the number one target for Sean McVeigh's Rams. And if you say, well, no, I think it's Cooper Cup or I think it's Brandon Cooks. I think, well, you're wrong because he's the number one target. In 2017, let's rewind. When he was the wide receiver 32 and it was really good and you're like, oh, he's great. Well, he was the number one target. Now, if you don't remember that he was the number one target, if you look it up, it'll appear that he wasn't at first glance since he had nine fewer targets in Cooper Cup. Except.

You probably forget that he only played 12 games that year. He was the wide receiver 32 in 12 games. He was on pace for 130 targets, clearly leading Cooper Cup by almost a full target a game. And then in 2018, he was the clear number one target where he had 130 targets. But are you talking to yourself? Coup on. He was gone. Well, here's the cool thing.

In eight games, he had eight games with Cooper Cup. Do we need to leave, Mike? It's the one-man show. See, later. Welcome to the Fantasy Jason Balls. Look, he had eight games with Cooper Cup. He was on pace for 130 targets. He had eight games without Cooper Cup. He was on pace for 130 targets. And that's what I love about him is he's consistent.

Not only did he finish as the wide receiver 10, but he has such a high rate of finishing as a wide receiver 2 or better every single week. The only people over the last two years that's finished higher than him are superstars. Here's the list of people. Hopkins, Devante Adams, Antonio Brown, Odell Beckham, Michael Thomas, J.J. Green, Mike Evans, Tyree Kill, and Edelman. That's it. And then Robert Wood. You want him to get some respect. I do. So I am totally fine drafting him.

as a wide receiver one but here's the best part and why he's a my guy this year you don't have to go ahead and draft your wide receiver one who finishes there as your wide receiver two or three or four if you start four wide receivers because you're going in the back of the fourth round what are you doing so yes robert woods that's a my guy so passionate people have a hard time they love you old man i love you

Uh, people have a hard time when there's talented receivers around him. You'd admit Cooper Cup is amazing. Oh, absolutely. A really good player, Brandon Cook. Amazing. Can make a big, big play. I said on the show. It makes it hard for people to go like all in on one guy. And so they all slip in the draft. And that's what's great. I would draft any one of those. And in fact, in recent drafts, real drafts and mock drafts, I have constantly been taking two of them. I was going to say, would you take both? I would take any two of the three in any one of my drafts if they're at value. All right. One my guy left for each of us.

And then our live mailbag, warm up. Warm up just a little bit. Bumble, bumble, bing. Sorry. No, no, you don't even have to do it. That's true. I get the night off. Is it back to me? Yes, sir. Dante Pettis. Yes. And this, look, he's being drafted at wide receiver 30. I have him at 24 with a lot of upside. And really, when it comes down to it, this is.

This is the pure talent-based my guy selection. And the question from the audience, which I shouldn't entertain, but it's an important one, is how is his aura, and it's very, very positive. It's green. It's green. I've looked into it. And I, look, you can kind of spin his numbers to make the more, like, number-based case, 17.3 per catch.

He had a four-week stretch while he was actually healthy where he was in the top 24 every single week, weeks 12 through 15 last year. But the truth is he has 27 career receptions. So you can't hang a lot on 27 receptions. But we'll go narrative street a little bit. And more so, we'll go with my eyeballs, which I trust a little bit. Watch and play football. He is really, really good. And look at what the team did. Did they go out and get Antonio Brown? They could have.

Do they go out and trade for Odell? They were rumored to be considering it. Do they go out? Look, they believe they have something very, very good in Dante Pettis. And when you watch him on film, I love everything that I see from him. He's an elite athlete. He's very quirky with his route running. He's got Jimmy Garapolo coming back. He's got elite playmaking ability. He's got big playability. And he has the chance to be the number one and what I think will be a very good offense in San Francisco.

When Odell showed up in the NFL, you knew something was different with that player from day one. And it's not to say that his career is going to mirror Odell's to a T.