AFC North Breakdown + Double Jump, Buy or Sell - Fantasy Football Podcast

of relevance. I would obviously much rather have Markingham if we're talking about for this season in a startup, in a, you know, any kind of redraft, even in a keeper league. I think sometimes people get a little carried away with Keeper League saying, oh, but he's younger. Like, you're only keeping a couple guys here. I would much rather have marking room. All right. Let's move on to the eight and eight Pittsburgh Steelers. What a bewildering season it was for them, 29th in rushing yards per game.

31st in passing yards per game. They essentially deleted their offense. They acquired a defense when they traded for Minka Fitzpatrick and turned that entire team around, really threatened for the playoffs, which is a testament to Mike Tomlin and his ability to kind of just piece together a season that was destroyed when Big Ben went down. Underwhelming performances last year from Juju Smith-Schuster from James Connor.

Looking at the James Connor narrative, we've talked about it every which way and around. He's a tough case for fantasy owners this year because, yeah, he is. You know, last year in the draft, very high draft capital player, somebody that we saw two years ago absolutely dominate when we thought Lev Bell would be back. He wasn't back. And then James Connor week after week was this incredible value. He's missed 11 games so far in his career. He's had four other games.

where he left early with injury. And so we've seen comments from this team, from Tomlin, from their general manager, Kevin Colbert, from Rooney, talk about the injury problems. You know, Tomlin earlier in March said, you know, he didn't spend a lot of time on the field healthy. That is as much a part of the game as blocking and tackling. He's talking about the health. We're going to assess the situation with him in order to minimize injury. So do you read into that?

Do they spread the workload around? You know, you've had some of those negative comments. You've also had Tomlin come back and say, well, yeah, he's our guy because look at the backfield. I mean, what choice do you have but to say that? So I think he's just one of the more enigmatic kind of you're either going to be really, really happy with the pick or you're going to be really sad as kind of where I think you're going to end up. Yeah, I tend to agree with that. And it's so tough with the way that ADP is just laying out with the other players who are going around him. I still.

believe in James Connor. I believe in the talent and believe that if he is healthy and plays 14, 15 games, that he will end up as a top 12 running back. I went and looked at the stat because I saw you were, Andy, we're going to talk about how he's missed 11 games. You know, Lev Bell missed 14 games in his last three years with the Steelers. And I'm not talking about the holdout year. Otherwise, that number will be much larger. But like, running backs get hurt.

And Levion Bell was viewed as this like superstar just nonstop. He's a fantasy stud. But he missed a lot of games. Like if you remember there was the two years in a row where he took massive knee injuries. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, running backs do get hurt. It's just a matter of does the team philosophically think they have to like when the GM came out and talked about it. He made a point of saying this is not one injury. This is this injury. Then it's this injury. Then it's this injury. Then it's I'm leaving early.

Do they start to think it's their fault? Do they start to think we have to control the workload? Possibly. Or do they cut them loose? Because in the nature of the NFL, if he's that much better than the guys around him, you have to have him on the field. I think he'll be a workforce. Sorry, I would say the GM had his opportunity in the draft to do something about it, didn't do anything about it. Did something about it. Little Bitsky.

I mean, Anthony McFarland is right. Little Bitsky is the emphasis. Yeah, he did draft Anthony McFarland. It was fifth round, right? Fourth or fifth round, but Anthony McFarland's like a hundred and eighty pound dude. My point was the GM could have done something then. Once it's Sunday, that's out of the GM's hands. Now it's on, it's Mike Tomlin's decision. Jason, you were going to weigh in.

Yeah, I think to start the year, Connor is going to be the workhorse back until he can't handle it. And if he gets injured, then you're going to be sad the rest of the season long because then they're going to monitor and change it up. That being said, you look at like, okay, he's going right next to David Johnson in drafts. Who would you rather have? I'm more confident that David Johnson, you know, will have more work there. But at the same time,

on a per snap, per game basis, I think the upside, you have to go with James Connor here. Well, I think it's just philosophical, right? I mean, I would have David Johnson. I've got him ranked higher and I would take him because both of those guys are going to slide in as my running back too. So I'm looking at that running back too. I am looking for consistency of being on the field.

and I think I will have that with David Johnson. We talk about him being a volume guarantee. I do not think. How many games has David Johnson missed in the last three years? He's missed a lot, but he's more than James Connor. Yeah, yeah. And, well, I mean, he played last year. I mean, he wasn't out last year. He missed three games. But the tough thing with James Connor, I think, and I remember this, right? It was our Halloween episode. It was one of our serious XM live shows. And we had the question of, you know, if who,

name a player and who's a Halloween candy. And I remember loving this analogy, it was James Connor was a Three Musketeers bar because, you know, he's kind of hard on the outside, but he's just soft moving in the middle. And that's how it felt because he kept going back in these games. And then leaving the, even when he started and finished a game, he would leave halfway through. It's just like when you're watching it, he couldn't stay out. That's why I like your point, Jason, is that if he goes down, he may be kind of deleted from fantasy relevance.

in terms of the team's not going to give him a sixth try to be the workhorse. Whereas I feel like, you know, all things being equal, David Johnson's more guaranteed. But that's the tier you're in. I mean, you're shooting for a much higher upside with Connor. Connor has the much higher potential to return somehow to 2018 form, get healthy, was by far the best guy in the field last year when he was healthy.

But we don't have to say there. Let's talk about some of the other. This is why, let me just throw this out, because our whole goal here in this show is to help you win a championship. This is why this year, more than any year I can remember, smashing running backs in the first two rounds and getting two really good guys. So you don't have to have these conversations? You don't have to have these conversations because you look at the wide receivers that are going around these guys. And it's like Amari Cooper and O'Don Beckham. And, you know, Cooper Cup, I would rather have these wide receivers and better running backs.

So that's the way I'm leaning this year. I almost like, and even if you don't take running backs in those first two rounds, I might just do basically a version of zero running back where I don't want to choose one of these guys. You know, you know what I mean? Like I just, this tier of running backs is, is gross when you look at the wide receiver value you could have and then see if you can fill in with later round running backs. Yeah, there's certainly the possibility that, you know.

Guys like Kareem Hunt, guys like Devin Singletary can do as much for your team as James Connor. Right. So there is that possibility. Big additions, not really in addition, but he is. Big Ben's coming back. And then Eric Ebron was signed at tight end. Means a lot for Big Ben in my estimation, even if Ebron is a little up and down, which is kind of, I think that's his family crest. But Chase Claypool added in the second round, wide receiver.

Big-bodied wide receiver, and then Anthony McFarland was a fourth-round pick. I think he said fifth earlier. Running back, scat type of back. Says he weighs 200 pounds, but he doesn't. It's one of those guys. Yeah, I like it, man. I really like him. Oh, he was electric. Mike and I loved him when we scouted him. He looked great, but you want to talk about an injury-prone little guy. That's Anthony McFarland.

So those were the big additions. Obviously, Deonti Johnson coming into his sophomore year, Juju Smith-Schuster. This is his final season. He's an unrestricted free agent after this year. Which is wild, man. It feels strange. It really does. It was like last year didn't exist, Mike, for the Steelers. So other kind of considerations with this team.

What do we think? Can they win the division? Deonté Johnson is the name that I think people listening really want to know about. Do we believe he has that breakout year? He was the best wide receiver last year with the crappy quarterback play. He did most of his damage with Duck Hodges, which is impressive that you can even do damage with Duck Hodges.

Um, you know, he was up near the top of the league in yards of separation. He's a good player. And, you know, he's, he's also a very popular player in fantasy circles right now. Yeah. I mean, personally, I feel like he's being a little overhyped.

I don't see the ceiling being that, you know, people are like, well, he's the same size in high and weight and, you know, conference is Antonio Brown and now he's got big bin back. It's like, hold, hold up. Antonio Brown made a lot of money for players that size. That's what I think happens. So I think he's a quality wide receiver out there, but I would still be putting my money on Juju to be the number one here.

So the big decision is Deiante is an eighth round pick and Juj is a fourth round pick for fantasy drafts right now. So do you believe, I think I've made the contention that I believe the odds of Deonté Johnson being the most fantasy relevant wide receiver are high enough to where I'd rather have him in the eighth than Juju in the fourth. Do you guys look at Juju in the fourth as the better, more secure pick there? Or do you agree?

To me, this is entirely about what you believe in Deonté Johnson. That's how you led your statement, right? If you are listening and you're like, man, I really believe in Deonti Johnson. I like what I saw. I think he has a breakout chance. Then don't draft Juju in the fourth. There's a ton of great wide receivers in the fourth. To me, I don't believe that about Deontay Johnson. So if I had to pick one of these guys, I'd rather have juju. Yeah, I would take juju as well. So, Jay, for as the resident Eric E. Braun Shreuther on this show,

It didn't work out for Vance McDonald last year, but again, didn't work out for very many Pittsburgh Steelers. A couple years ago, when Vance was, you know, joined the team, he went 50 receptions for 610 yards and four touchdowns. But that was also during Big Ben's monster year. So even with 50 receptions, Vance was still just an 11% target share, which is, like, that's not the number that you.

are hoping for. Do you do you have Eric Ebron going at 11% or do you think he can be higher? I have right now Eric Ebron at 11.6% of the target share, which means he's going to be serviceable, have his games, you know, over 500 yards, probably seven or more touchdowns. But I'm not really excited. If you're in a...

you know, something like the Scotty Fishbowl, sure, that's where Eric Ebron might be good or a best ball league. But I don't think he's going to have a big breakout campaign here. He'll be third in the pecking order in targets. Are we completely writing off James Washington? Yep. But to be fair, I did that when he was drafted as a rookie. So I've just stayed the course. Well, the one thing that is strange about James Washington is that if you were,

looking at Deonte Johnson last year and the impressive numbers and the success he had, it's a little bit intellectually dishonest to not acknowledge James Washington having an impact in the offense and just pick and choose this off season. Well, one guy can take a step forward. The other guy can't. It's true. I'm glad that you brought him up, Mike, because, you know, I don't know if it's because of the Claypool pick and how we slot the wide receivers in, but Washington has not been brought up. James Washington had 50 more yards in Deontay Johnson in one fewer game. There you go.

So that kind of lays the intellectual dishonesty if you're all about Deontay Johnson and not liking James Washington. I don't believe in either of them. And as a final thought, when I'm looking at Pittsburgh's wide receiver corps, it's going to come down to, much like he does with Tom Brady, who's got the trusted Big Ben? Which guy is in the right place at the right time when Big Ben needs you? Is that going to be Deontay Johnson? Is Juju going to take that mantle again now that those two are back together?

A lot of upside in the offense that didn't exist there last year. That's exactly why I go, Juju. You've got years of experience with him. When Big Ben finally got back and had the whole shave his beard video. Did you throw an ass on the end of that year of experience? It's all he's got, right? No, we had two awesome years with Big Ben. I did throw an ass on that. Is this his fourth year? Yes. That's why it's his last year. He's a time traveler, Mike. He had.