Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - The TRUTH About Fantasy TE's in 2016

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We'll get a $75-sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at indeed.com slash podcast. That's indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now, then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Hi, this is Eric Dickinson, NFL Hall of Famer, and you listen to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast.

to the fantasy footballers podcast coming to you from the fantasy jocks.com studios with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome to the show. What are you doing over there, man? We're just waiting. It's called suspense, Mike. Deal with it. No, that's called people think there's a problem with the podcast. No, they don't. I did. What's going wrong? Everything's different.

Are you okay over there? Yeah, I'm doing great. We played... Withstanding victories? Yeah, we played some basketball this morning in this 2017, the Year of Health. Hey, Foot Clan, get on the Year of Health with us. Yeah. Let's just make this a thing for everybody, and you can all get healthy this year. But we played some basketball, and I'm exhausted. Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty tired, too. You don't seem very tired, though. I'm doing all right. I mean, I was about to start the show until this Hooligan jumped in. Well, I mean...

I don't know why he's here. What an intro. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers podcast, Indy Mike and Jason back again. It's Thursday, January 26th, and we welcome you in to the studio with us as we talk fantasy football. We've got the 20, I'm sorry, I was going to say the 25 statistics because I see that article is coming out today on tight ends. This show is about tight ends. KD. Yeah, yeah, by KD. Kevin Durant writes for us on the website.

No, we have an article today on the truth about fantasy tight ends. I find this to be maybe the more interesting of positions to discuss because, you know, it wasn't as interesting to discuss the first three or four running backs. But the first three or four tight ends, you don't know up from down. I do. I'm so... Top from bottom. I am so angry at one of these tight ends, but we'll get into it. You, yeah.

You hold the grudge. I hold it well. We have a... Oh, I couldn't remember. I know. We will. We'll get into it. I figured it out. If you want to follow this show and all that's going on with the fantasy footballers, you can do so on Twitter at the FFF Ballers. You can join our fantasy community at join the foot.com. Help support the show. Check out the website, the fantasy footballers.com. We're also on YouTube, iTunes, Google, Google, everywhere you want to be. All right, quick question of the day comes from Matt Maple. He says, who's the best candidate?

for a breakout or return to form next year. Look, it's January 26th, gentlemen, but give me an early breakout return to form candidate for the 2017 fantasy football season. Ooh, all right. Well, I can go with a bounce back, a guy that I think looked all right. The problem was his quarterback was atrocious this year, and that quarterback...

genuinely might have had a shoulder problem all year. I'm going to say that Alan Robinson, a footy favorite two years ago, who really disappointed people this year, and I think people are going to drop too low on Alan Robinson the following year. That's usually what happens. We swing the pendulum too far. I think he has a chance to come back. Certainly have a better year than this past year. I trust the, I trust the fact that Blake Bortles.

could come back and be a decent fantasy quarterback next year far more than, say, D'Andre Hopkins and Brock Goswiler. I don't think Brock has the ability. We've seen Blake Bortals do it. I think there are reasons, including the offensive coordinator change, to give me hope in that Jacksonville offense. I carry much of the same vein as you do with my candidate. Both of ours are returned to form, so to speak. I'm going with Sammy Watkins.

You know, this year, number 92 on the wide receiver ranks, obviously most of it was plagued with injuries. I like candidates for breakout slash return to form. When they've done it before, when we've seen it with our own eyes, when you know the talent is there, and Watkins and Robinson, both are elite talent at the wide receiver position. So I believe Watkins, I'm going to assume health at this point in time. Yeah, it's a little dangerous with the, you have another foot injury, another foot surgery.

or not another foot, but a repeated foot injury. And you have some... Yeah, we would have given him a footie, but we didn't want to bring up anything that would make him feel bad. I'm going with one that's a little... You've got to follow the narrative street a little bit. Okay. Right? So this isn't just plug and play. I'm going to bring up Jordan Matthews. I almost put him in. Jordan Matthews... Because he was so low this year. I think is a good wide receiver. I agree. I think he played out of his position.

You don't think he's just a dude? No, I do not think he's just a dude. I don't necessarily think that he is elite, but I think that he has a skill set that can grow. And he was one of those guys where Jason, correct me if I'm wrong, but his rookie year, I mean, he had excellent hands. He did. He sure did. He was a great, great wide receiver, set a bunch of rookie records. And he, but then you saw him last year that was plagued by some drops, like I said, playing out of position.

You have Carson Wentz, another year of growth from him. He showed at times that he can turn into a competent quarterback. I also believe that the Eagles will not enter into next year with their wide receiver core looking anything like it looked towards the end of last year. There will be an overhaul. You have those Deshawn Jackson rumors of returning back to Philadelphia. If not, I think they will draft someone or sign someone else from free agency, who is an outside.

type receiver, let Jordan Matthews return to what he does in the slot. So I think that he could end up being a draft day value. The thing about Jordan Matthews his first two years is that he was an eight touchdown guy in both seasons. This year, he averaged a touchdown every 24 receptions with Carson Wins, which was almost dead last out of all qualified wide receiver. So that was one of those things that you didn't see this year that, you know, he's never been a thousand yard receiver. And

So if he doesn't get the yardage up and he stays in the slot, I don't know if the ceiling's there without, you know, the touchdown numbers. I don't know if you need to think of Jordan Matthews as, you know, Edelman Light as his ceiling or not. It's a, I mean, he was at 997 last year or two years ago. So to call him not a thousand yards. Still didn't get there, Mike. It is the truth, but Melvin Gordon has also never rushed for a thousand yards. Well, it's just, look, yeah, I didn't say he had a bad year. I said he had an eight touchdown year.

That's normally high from the slot position. And so if he stays in the slot, which he seems to be, his only year with Carson Wentz was this past year. So I agree with you. He's a bounceback candidate. No doubt about it. Also missed two games. Finished with over 800 yards and three touchdowns. So he is a guy who I think that people are going to. As Carson wins. They're going to write off.

As Carson wins grows and gets better, which I think we all expect he will improve, it's only going to be better for Jordan Matthews. Makes sense. All right. Let's get into the truth. I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. All right. Let's get into the truth at the tight-in position in 2016. It was an interesting year at the tight-in position. It was the year of barf. Barf.

We did. Yeah, there were many bar-fee tight-ins. There was a lot of hope. A lot of athletes at the tight-in position conjure up so much hope because you've seen great years. You've seen Julius Thomas break out in the preseason and become a 12-13 touchdown guy for Denver. You have seen breakout type of players. And then you've seen disappointments. You've seen the Eric Ebruns who you just kind of, the engine never gets started. Yeah.

You know, you just can't get him into that upper echelon. And so this year, I'm not sure what to make of it. This will be a good discussion because, look, we're looking at the consistency of these guys versus their ranking. And if there's any position that, look, having some consistency at is valuable, is a difference maker. It's a tied-in position. And let me just say this, because while we were looking at these numbers and, you know, putting this show together,

I completely agree with Andy. Consistency is really what, other than touchdowns, consistency is king for tight ends. You want to be able to not have that zero or two point game. And I, Mike and I decided on our own, like, if you score less than six points, less than six fantasy points and a half point system, that's a complete, you.

dud like you have hurt your team and looking through this i i saw one of the most consistent guys one of the guys tied for most consistent and i was like no no way it's not possible not possible he stunk yeah well we'll talk about him shortly though you bring up a point though like every position we've we've looked at and so if you if you go back to our previous episodes quarterbacks wide receivers um and the running backs there has been a player on the list

that has not busted, right, has given you consistency throughout the season. That's not the case of the tight-in position. There are no tight-ins on the board at all that haven't had at least two complete bust games as defined by not finishing in the top 21 at the position. Well, and I can tell you why that happened, because if you look at all the other positions, the guys that had no busts, they were...

one of the best, right? They were the first or the second or the third best at their position. Well, the number one guy, the guy we're going to start talking about here, Travis Kelsey, who finished number one, he would have, had he scored the same amount of fantasy points this year as last year, he would not have been a top six tight-in. He would have been the seventh best tight-in last year. So tease that out a little bit, because I don't know if people understand what happened at the tight-in position in 2016. What it means is that there were truly no elite...

great tight ends this year that front to back the whole season got it done. Greg Olson had that amazing first half. Travis Kelsey had the amazing second half, but as a whole this season, no one. There was not one single guy who really did take the cake. I mean, last year you had Delaney Walker.

Delaney Walker last year was great and consistent the whole year. He was the fifth best tight end last year, and he scored more last year than the number one did this year. So this year, we were really missing that top end. Now, I wanted to look, is this across all tight ends, or is it, you know, just the top? And it really is just the top, because if you look at the 12th place finish at tight end, which is grossly my boy Kobe Fleener, if you go back over the last five years,

Basically, the number 12 guy was about the same as it was last year. However, the last five years, the number 12 has consistently just dropped a little bit, like two points less each year. And so the trend seems to be kind of tight ends just becoming less and less critical. So, yeah, that begged the question for me. If what you're saying is true, right, there was no elite tight in.

Is it fair to say anybody who spent any draft capital on Titan last year wasted a pick? Any high draft capital. It was a complete and unadulterated waste. I wouldn't say it was a waste. So if you drafted Kelsey at 55, you're okay. I think that's fine. Would you have had him on your team still halfway through the year? I think you would have. I mean, he started fine. In his first four games in a half point scoring, he had three double digit performances. It was the middle of the season where you thought, oh, crap.