Fantasy Football 2018 - Regress or Impress? LIVE Tour Announce!

Ten interceptions. I was laughing when I was going through and statting Philip Rivers looking at his numbers. 18 rushes for a total of negative two yards. I believe that is, what, 17 or 18 kneel downs? Is that where we're at? Something like that. Philip Rivers is, he's a little, he's kind of difficult for me because historically, Philip Rivers has been an awesome fantasy quarterback.

And often undervalue. Yes. Yes, very, very frequently. But the past few years, since 2013, he really has two great years where you were able to stick around with Philip Rivers. There is a common thread between those two years. 2013 when Philip Rivers was the quarterback six, that was Keenan Allen's rookie year, where he exploded and was an absolute freak show and a monster for that team. Then he was...

He did not have Keenan Allen for four years, 12, 12, quarterback 14. That's where he, Rivers finished. Last year, quarterback 8, oh, what do we have here? Keenan Allen healthy for the entire year and absolutely dominant. So it's a question of, for me, the Phillip Rivers question is directly correlated to what do you believe about Keenan Allen? Is he going to stay on fire like he finished the year?

Or will we go back to low yard per catch type of performance from Keenan Allen? Yeah, I will say this. You know, when I think Keenan Allen stays healthy, most of his injuries in the past are more of the freak type.

nature, not the, you know, repetitive, oh, you've got a foot fracture that is going to come up again and again, or a pulled hamstring that you can't get over for a while. That's not the type of injuries he's had. So I think he's going to have a good year. The problem that I have, and also in Philip Rivers' favor, is the fact that last year they had a very easy path against the run. And this year, it's going to get much more difficult, Mike, that must excite you for your Melvin Gordon hatred.

However, Andy, you alluded to it. I think their defense is really good, and what they did in the draft helped themselves out a lot. They got exactly the pieces they needed. So I think that if the team itself is not needing to score as much, that might hurt Philip Rivers from needing to air it out. They were in a lot of close games, a lot of games that, you know, last year they lost it.

were in and you know had to be throwing the ball at the end and i could see that change a little bit this year so when it comes to regress or impress yeah i guess i never gave my official answer i think from the quarterback eighth spot he finished at last year a slight regression is where i lean even though i still really like philip rivers this year i think he will be undervalued in drafts he'll be a late round target because you're going to be able to get him super late i'm with jason

But I don't think he'll go up. My assumption is he's in this list and maybe Brooks put him in there because the eyes fell out of his head when he saw that I had Philip Rivers ranked as my fourth best fantasy quarterback in 2018, at least right now. Look, last year was a great season for Philip Rivers, 4,500 plus yards. You cannot complain about that. I think the wide receiver core is great. Alan, Williams, Tyrell Williams, Travis Benjamin. I mean...

Big play opportunities. 600 plus yards of receiving from the running back position. Gordon catches the ball. Echler catches the ball. Hunter Henry gets to take the reins. Yes. Stretch the field more than Gates did. You know, he's a 13-yard-to-catch type of tight-in. So I think the Chargers is going to be one of the best teams in football. I'm talking top 10 team. And I think that's going to translate to the production at the quarterback position. So I don't have any real fears of putting him in that category. He's finished.

You know, number six in 2013, number five in 2010. Last year he had nine games with the quarterback rating over 100, which was his most since 2008. I think it's exactly what Mike said. When you give, it's amazing. When you give a good quarterback, good receiving options, they play better. And Alan's one of the best in the game. Yeah. And so I think this is a team that's ready to succeed to get, you know, one of the things that I always hate and have hated in years past is playing against Phillip Rivers because.

If he gets short fields, yeah, maybe they're not in his mini shootouts. But you give him a short field. He's a touchdown monster. He will find a way to get it in the end zone. 28 last year. I'm up at 32 this year. So for me, it's an impress. For you guys, it's kind of a status quo or regress. Yes, but one more. But I don't read too much into the...

the strength of schedule aspect to that. Sure. And yeah, I don't go over the top with any of the schedule stuff because it's all projections on too many moving parts. But I slightly factor that in. I will say with the Keenan Allen thing, they got more and more involved with that connection as the year went on. If you look at the second half of last year. It's a huge difference. The second half of last year on a 16 game basis, Philip Rivers would have had 4,900 yards and 30 touchdowns with only eight interceptions because he was just going, hey, Keenan.

Hey, Keenan. Keenan, what's up? Keenan. And so, Andy, you know, those are numbers that will finish where you're projecting it at top four. So I wouldn't be shocked with that. All right. Let's move on to a more royal interest here. Jared Goff. Last year, the... I was just imagining him actually as a king of a country. Yeah, I'm not sure I want that. Jared Goff ruling over the land. The people would be all about his marriage. They would just be...

The royal weddings. Yeah, that's coming up right now. Are you married to Jared Goff is the question. Number 12 overall last year, shocking the world. And I think that's a fair assessment of what happened. People, yes, you might have had excitement about Sean McVeigh, but what we saw from Goff in year one did not give you confidence. Coming into year three, being the...

First overall draft pick in the NFL and having a great year too with an awesome head coach. You've got all the weapons. You get Brandon Cook, who maybe you think is better or worse at Sammy Watkins, but at least near the same, if not better. There are a lot of reasons where you could say he's going to impress take another step forward. I don't personally see it. No, I think he's good for the team. But I don't necessarily think he's a regress for me. I've met 16. Yeah, you've got a guy who.

through a, I mean, it was up almost near 6% touchdown ratio from his passes. And if you watch them, they're so often a pass that was not targeted in the end zone, the way that, you know, Carson Wentz was doing, and a wide receiver just broke something free. It took it to the house, and Jared Goff gets credit for that. And those are the type of touchdowns that you look to regress upon because those don't usually happen at the rate that they happened last year.

So, yeah, I think he's going to regress. I don't think he's taking a step forward this season, even though the Rams, I mean, for all intents purposes, look locked and loaded for, huge success. I will say he did finish strong the final five games of the year, two plus touchdowns and 93 plus pass rating in each one of those contests. But for a guy who finished at quarterback 12, did you realize that he had as many quarterback one performances as Andy Dalton?

So just let that wash over you. 3800 total passing yards is nothing that makes me excited to put him in my top 12. And when you see that he played, is this correct, nine fewer fantasy points against top 16 defenses. So he did not step up against.

tough defenses. That puts them in the non-autostart category that I would consider a top 10 type of guy. Fine to stream. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. This is not an anti, this is a fantasy football show. I noticed that the Rams fans get a little sensitive about, you know, maybe it's because we, we harken from the Arizona, the Valley of the Sun here. Yeah, Rams suck. Just piling on. But.

Look, he was great last. He did what was necessary. That doesn't always translate to Todd 12 fantasy performances. It made them a great team. And I think Sean McVeigh put him in a position to succeed because I don't think Jared Goff or Blake Bortles, for that matter, are going to succeed if you put everything on their shoulder the way you have to with the Phillip Rivers or Matthew Stafford or obviously in Aaron Rogers and those type of, that's just not who they are. Maybe that's what Goff can become at some point in time. Brandon Cooks, he's a weapon.

He's a great weapon. So I think that he's going to have his games where, like you said, Brandon Cooks takes a screen pass 87 yards to the house. Todd Gurley is going to break some long screenplay runs. That's all going to happen. It's just going to be more difficult to predict because you won't have yardage to be the foundation of that statistical piece. Touchdowns are the least predictable asset. So we're all regress out of that top 12. Yeah, I've got them at quarterback 22.

For the 2018. But still royalty. Absolutely. King Goughrey. Let's move to the, well, let's pause for a second. Let's pause for a second. Let's go ahead and thank today's sponsor. One of our favorites. Casper. Let's thank Casper. Casper is a sleep brand that continues to revolutionize this line of products to create an exceptionally comfortable sleep experience one night at a time. Here's the deal. This isn't a tough sell. I own a Casper. I bought one. I sleep in it every night.

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Oh, there you go. All right. I think this is one of the more polarizing players in fantasy to discuss this year. I'm excited to talk about it. Regress or impress Dionne Lewis. New running back for the Tennessee Titans. That offense you just alluded to, Mike. Different head coach. DeMarco Murray is gone. Dionne Lewis was great last year. And yet, it's kind of strange. When you look at the impact he had for the Patriots, I feel like...

What you saw with your eyes and what you saw him do towards the back half of the season supersedes his actual point totals. He had 180 carries 896 yards, 6 touchdowns on the ground. 32 receptions, 214 yards, 3 touchdowns through the air. But he was kind of a jack of all trades, able to get it done between the tackles. They pick him up in Tennessee. Last year in the number 14. What do you think? Dionne Lewis is very tricky because first off.

Staying on the football field is not been his specialty. I don't know if you guys realize this, but one, it was his first year ever playing 16 games. Okay, that's fine. Last year, he had more carries than he had his first four years combined. Fresh legs, that's what I hear. And on top of that, yeah, 180 carries, that's nice.